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Bombs at mosque, restaurant in Nigerian city kill 44 people, wound 67

Many people were killed in Jos, capital of Plateau state, on Sunday night as suspected Boko Haram insurgents struck within a mosque and a local restaurant in the city.

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That was followed by gunfire and another blast at a mosque, said Tijjani Saifullahi, who survived the assault.

A suicide bomber blew himself up in a church Sunday (July 5) in the Nigerian town of Potiskum, killing the priest and four other worshippers, witnesses and police told CNN.

A third blast occurred when a female suicide bomber self-detonated at the Redeemed Church of God in northeast Nigeria during a church service, killing at least five people.

Al Jazeera’s Yvonne Ndege, reporting from Abuja, said Yahaya was known to be critical of the armed group Boko Haram, which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.

“At the moment we have 44 dead bodies and 47 others injured from the scenes of the two attacks”, said Mohammed Abdulsalam, from the National Emergency Management Agency.

Sunday’s attacks are the latest in a string blamed on Boko Haram that have now killed about 300 people in the past week.

Sabi’u Bako was picking up a takeout meal when he heard a massive explosion as he walked away with friends.

“As we have said before, the people of northern Nigeria deserve to live free from violence and from terror”, U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement.

Jos is located where Nigeria’s majority Muslim north and mainly Christian south collide.

Musa said the militants looted stores and torched “almost half the village” before subsequently being defeated when soldiers posted reinforcements.

The second attack targeted the packed Shagalinku restaurant in a shopping complex on the Bauchi Road, which is popular with travellers from the northeast.

Boko Haram took over a large swath of northeastern Nigeria previous year and stepped up cross-border raids.

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Meanwhile, Nigeria’s military freed 180 detainees who had been held for up to two years, accused of being Boko Haram members.

People gather around the Redeemed Christian Church of God after a bomb blast in Potiskum Nigeria