Nigeria's militant Islamist group Boko Haram is accused of unleashing a new weapon of war - the female suicide bomber, fuelling concern that its insurgency has entered a more ruthless phase.
Four of them - all teenage girls - carried out attacks in the biggest northern city, Kano, last week, leading to social media sites going viral with speculation - dismissed as unfounded by the government - that Boko Haram had turned some of the more than 200 schoolgirls abducted in April into human bombs.
At the same time, government spokesman Mike Omeri said the security forces had arrested three people in neighbouring Katsina state - including two girls aged 10 and 18 - with explosive belts strapped around them.
Nigeria's first female bomber - a middle-aged woman - struck in June: Riding a motorcycle, she went to a military barracks in the north-eastern city of Gombe, where she detonated her explosives while being searched at a checkpoint, killing one soldier.
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