8 killed in suicide bombing at Nigerian checkpoint

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - A suicide car bomber on Sunday attacked a military checkpoint in Nigeria's northeastern city of Damaturu, killing six soldiers and two civilians, police said.

Suspicion will fall on Islamist sect Boko Haram, which is waging an insurgency against President Goodluck Jonathan's government across the north with the aim of carving out an Islamic state in a country split evenly between Christians and Muslims.

"The lone suicide bomber detonated the bomb before the car he was in could be stopped, killing the six soldiers and one civilian," Patrick Egbmuniwe, the police commissioner for Yobe State, told Reuters by telephone.

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