'Suicide blast' hits Nigeria's Shias

A suicide bomber has blown himself up at a Shia religious ceremony in north-east Nigeria, killing about 20 people, eyewitnesses have told the BBC.

The bomber joined the ceremony in Potiskum town and blew himself up, the witnesses said.

No group has said it carried out the attack, but suspicion is bound to fall on militant Sunni Islamist group Boko Haram.

It denounces Shias, a minority in Nigeria, as non-Muslims.

Witnesses told the BBC Hausa service the bomb exploded when the crowd was marching to mark Ashura, a solemn day when Shias mourn the martyrdom of Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, in 680 AD at Karbala in modern-day Iraq.

BBC