Suicide attacks kill four in Niger: local official

Two suicide bombings by militants from Islamist extremist group Boko Haram killed at least three civilians and a policeman in Niger today, a local official said.
The attacks occurred in the heart of the far southeastern city of Diffa, near the border with Nigeria.
"There are at least eight dead - a policeman, three residents of Diffa and four Boko Haram," the municipal official told AFP, adding that the fighters had detonated explosive belts.
One local journalist told AFP five civilians had been killed.
The region had experienced several weeks of relative calm but 15 civilians were killed in a Boko Haram attack in a southeastern village in the Diffa area on September 25.

Niger has joined a regional military alliance, alongside Chad, Niger and Nigeria, to fight Boko Haram, which was waged a bloody insurgency since 2009 marked by mass abductions, village massacres and suicide bombings by women and teenagers.