35 killed in Jos, Borno explosions

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About 35 persons have been killed in bomb explosions in Jos, Plateau State and a suicide attack on a bus station in Borno State.
Two blasts targeting a bus park in Jos, Plateau State killed at least 17 people on Thursday, the military and witnesses said, reports AFP.
"There were twin blasts today in Jos," said Ikedichi Iweha, military spokesman in the Plateau State capital which has been repeatedly attacked by Boko Haram.
He declined to give further details but two witnesses at the scene said the attacks were carried out by assailants who threw explosives from a moving car as they sped through the station. 
Meanwhile, 18 people were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a crowded bus station in Borno State on Thursday, while a second bomber was shot dead before he could detonate his explosives, witnesses.
On the Jos explosions, a driver, Ibrahim Hashidu said the first explosive device killed five people and injured several others by the roadside.
"We rushed out after hearing the explosions to see what was happening," he told AFP.
Moments later another device was thrown from the same car "in the middle of grocers selling fruits in front of the motor park...
"Twelve people died and many others were injured," Hashidu said.
Another witness who requested anonymity gave identical details.
There are military checkpoints in the road adjacent to the station and there were reports of angry mobs chasing away troops, apparently voicing frustration over their failure to stop the attack.
Babagana Kyari, a civilian vigilante on the Borno suicide attacj, said "at least 18 people, including three women, died and several others were injured" in an account supported by local resident Ali Dauda.
The attack happened after two men arrived the Tashar Gandu motor park on the edge of the town in Borno State, where one detonated his explosives among passengers and vendors, onlookers said.
No group has claimed responsibility for either bombing but Boko Haram has repeatedly targeted both places, as well as Biu.
On February 18, 36 people were killed when assailants in a motorised rickshaw detonated explosives at Yarmakumi village near Biu, with most of the victims child vendors and beggars.
The attacks again underscore the threat posed by Boko Haram, which experts say may resort to such tactics as they are pushed out of captured territory in the northeast by a multi-national military force.
The two men in the latest attack pretended to be traders leaving Biu after business at the main market, which takes place every Thursday and Sunday, said Kyari.
"The two men came as if they were travellers and one of them detonated his explosives in the midst of travellers and petty traders," the vigilante added.
"But the second man was shot and killed by soldiers before he could pulled the trigger."
Dauda said the scene was cordoned off by soldiers and vigilantes, while they waited the arrival of the police bomb squad to defuse the unexploded explosives on the second attacker.
"His body was abandoned at the scene of the blast which was cordoned off with the hope the explosives would explode by themselves," he added.
"When the explosives failed to explode after a long wait a mob who gathered near the scene took the risk and sprinkled gasoline on the body and three fire at it from a distance. The body caught fire and exploded without harming anyone."

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