Girl dies in failed Nigeria bomb attack

Police spokesman Magaji Majiya said the girl was the only casualty in the attempted bombing on Monday, and that her likely target had been Kano's Umar bin Khattab mosque.

Majiya said the explosion had been at a roundabout some 200 meters (220 yards) from the mosque, where worshippers had gathered for prayer.

"She blew up, killing herself. Nobody else was hurt in the incident," he said of the blast, which occurred at about 9 p.m. (2000 GMT). A police source told the AFP news agency it was believed that the explosives had detonated prematurely.

Boko Haram has increasingly used young women and girls as suicide bombers as part of its campaign of violence to establish a hardline Islamist state in the north of Nigeria.

Month of carnage

The group was blamed for a double bombing in the central city of Jos on Sunday that hit a Muslim restaurant, as well as a mosque. The mosque attack came as the cleric Sani Yahaya - the head of an organization that preaches religious coexistence - was addressing worshippers.

The Jos explosions followed a suicide bomb attack on an evangelical church earlier that day in the northeastern city of Potiskum that killed five, with the death toll for the day reaching more than 60.

Sunday's incidents brought the number of death tolls this month alone to 267, according to a tally by the AFP news agency. The increasing death toll places increasing pressure on President Muhammadu Buhari, a former army general who has repeatedly vowed to crush the Islamist group.