Militants disown blasts targeting Church, Mosque

Two blasts hit the central Nigerian city of Jos on Sunday evening, one at a restaurant and another targeting a Muslim cleric who has disowned Islamist militant group Boko Haram, several witnesses said.

Plateau state police spokesman Emmanuel Abuh confirmed there had been two attacks in Jos, but he gave no further details.

The second attack targeted cleric Sani Yahaya Jingir as he was preaching, witnesses said. Gunmen started shooting sporadically, then there was a loud blast, they said.

Although there was no official word on casualties from the two attacks, a Reuters witness at a hospital in Jos said 16 bodies had been brought in.

A suicide bomber earlier on Sunday morning killed six people at a church in northeast Nigeria, after a week in which suspected Boko Haram insurgents killed more than two hundred.

New president Muhammadu Buhari vowed to crush Boko Haram when he was sworn in on May 29, but the insurgents have stepped up their attacks despite losing huge chunks of territory this year to soldiers from Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

Buhari is due to visit his counterpart in Cameroon after the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and meet U.S. President Barack Obama on July 20, when Boko Haram will be high on the agenda.