Boko Haram suspected after suicide blast in Nigeria

A suicide bombing at a Shiite ceremony killed at least 15 people in northeastern Nigeria today while 132 inmates were at large after a daring prison break.
The attack in Potiskum, the commercial capital of Yobe state, came as Shia Muslims marked Ashura, the anniversary of the death of Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed.
The prison break saw armed gunmen use dynamite to blast open the detention facility in central Kogi state late yesterday, more than two years after Boko Haram launched an attack at the same facility.
Meanwhile in Adamawa state, also northeast Nigeria, tens of thousands of people fled their homes to refugee camps after the militants seized control of the commercial hub of Mubi.

The three incidents underscored fragile security in Nigeria and again looked likely to dent government claims of a ceasefire deal and peace talks to end five years of deadly Boko Haram violence.
The group's leader, Abubakar Shekau, on Friday dismissed the government's assertion of talks and an end to hostilities as "a lie".

He also claimed that the 219 schoolgirls kidnapped in mid-April, whose plight caught world attention, had all converted to Islam and been "married off".
In Potiskum, police and eye-witnesses said a bomb went off 10 metres (32 feet) from a seminary where Shia worshippers had gathered for the Ashura festival after visiting the local emir's palace.

"We lost 15 of our members in a suicide blast at the end of our Ashura procession," the head of the city's Shiite community, Mustapha Lawan Nasidi, told AFP.
Fifty people were also injured, he said, adding that several others died when troops who deployed to the scene opened fire. There was no immediate response from the military.
Potiskum is the economic capital of Yobe, which with Borno and Adamawa states have been under emergency rule since May of last year because of the insurgency.
The area has seen repeated violence, including attacks on the minority Shiite community.
In July, four Shiites were killed in a bomb attack blamed on the Sunni Islamists of Boko Haram at an open-air mosque in the Dogo Tebo area of the city.

In Kogi, national police spokesman Emmanuel Ojukwu said unidentified gunmen blew up the prison with explosives late today, allowing scores to escape.