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Bomb kills one, wounds 18 in northeastern Nigeria's Gombe


    ABUJA (Reuters) - A bombing at a military checkpoint next to a market in the northeastern Nigerian city of Gombe killed at least one person and wounded 18 others on Tuesday, a security source and a local aid worker said.

    Gombe is just outside the main area of operations of Boko Haram, a violent jihadist group trying to carve out an Islamic state in northern Nigeria, and has been attacked several times in the last few months.

    "The 18 people injured have been evacuated to the hospital ... while the suspected person who planted the bomb was caught and burnt to death by an angry mob," the aid worker, who declined to be named, said.

    There was no immediate claim of responsibility.Growing insecurity linked to Islamist militants is a major problem for President Goodluck Jonathan a month before polls in which he faces a rival, Muhammadu Buhari, seen as tough on security when he was a military ruler in the 1980s.

    (Reporting by Isaac Abrak; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Louise Ireland)