A suicide bomber killed some 19 people in north-eastern Nigeria on Thursday, local media reported, hours after the government claimed it made major progress quelling an insurgency by Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram. The bomber detonated explosives near a crowded checkpoint and a church in the town of Biu in Borno State, newspaper The Nation reported. The suicide bomber was arriving at the checkpoint on a taxi tricycle at 0300 GMT, witnesses told newspaper Premium Times. "The suicide bomber had come off the [tricycle] and was heading towards the roadside when the bomb went off," a witness was quoted as saying. "Though the suicide bomber did not die immediately, he was later shot dead by angry members of the Joint Task Force," the witness said, referring to a civilian armed group formed to assist Nigeria's military in the fight against Boko Haram. Earlier on Thursday, the government said the army recaptured ten towns from Boko Haram. The north-eastern towns of Gabchari, Abba Jabari, Gajigana, Gajiram,Damakar, Kumaliwa, Bosso, Wanti, Jeram and Karisungul are now back under government control, said spokesman Mike Omeri. The military already regained control over 19 other towns in the past few weeks, according to Omeri, whose claims could not be independently verified.
