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Teen girl suicide bomber hits Nigeria bus station

DAMATURU, Nigeria -- Police said a girl suicide bomber killed five people Tuesday in an attack at the crowded entrance to a bus station in Damaturu in northeast Nigeria.

Assistant Superintendent Toyin Gbagedesin said 41 people were wounded in the Tuesday morning explosion.

He said the bomber appeared to be about 14 years old. Suspicion fell quickly on the ISIS-aligned extremist group Boko Haram.

Nigeria's homegrown Islamic extremist group has used dozens of girls and women in recent suicide bombings in Nigeria and neighboring Chad, Cameroon and Niger, raising fears it is using kidnap victims.

More than 1,000 have been killed since President Muhammadu Buhari was elected in March with a pledge to annihilate the militants.

Bombings and village raids blamed on Boko Haram have killed hundreds in recent weeks as officials promise the deployment of a regional army to halt the group that has killed some 20,000 in six years and spilled across the West African nation's borders.

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