Two Female Suicide Bombers Kill 22 at a Mosque; Boko Haram Islamists Suspected of Nigerian Raid

Two female suicide bombers killed 22 people today (March 16, 2016) at a mosque outside the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri -- the heart of a seven-year-old insurgency by Islamist Boko Haram militants -- the Reuters website reports.

The attack -- which also wounded 18 people -- occurred during morning prayers in the village of Ummarai, four miles from the center of the capital of Bomo state in Africa's most populous country and biggest energy producer.

It was the first such attack in the northeast since February, when two suicide bombers -- also women -- blew themselves up at a camp for internally displaced people in Dikwa, about 50 miles from Maiduguri.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but it resembled others by Boko Haram in its campaign to carve out an Islamic state in the region.