Boko Haram Black Widow: Female Suicide Bomber Blasts Nigerian Army Barracks

A female suicide bomber believed to be linked to Islamic terror group Boko Haram, has killed herself and a soldier outside an army barracks in Nigeria's north-eastern city of Gombe - it's thought to be the first terrorist attack carried out be a woman in the country.

Soldiers stopped the woman as she tried to get into the barracks with explosives hidden under her robe, a defence spokesman said in a statement.

The device went off while the soldiers were searching her.

"I heard a loud sound and then black smoke covering the place... We saw soldiers moving bodies," Gombe trader Bello Kasuwankatako told Reuters.

The suicide bomber is believed to be related to Nigerian terror group Boko Haram which opposes the westernisation of Nigeria and wants to impose hard-line Sharia law in the country.

The militants, who routinely carry out attacks on civilians and government members, are responsible for the deaths of hundreds.

Attacks by Boko Haram are increasing in rural areas

Leaders from Gombe's neighbouring state of Borno told journalists they have now buried 110 bodies from attacks on nine villages early last week.

"It was a great tragedy. There are still corpses lying in the bushes surrounding the communities. Many of our people that fled to the top of the hills during and after the attacks are still there and now stranded," said Ali Ndume, a senator representing southern Borno.

The terror group rounded up some villagers outside Borno's state capital Maiduguri on Wednesday and killed at least 42 people.

A few days after, the militants attacked a town in Cameroon's far north, but local security forces fought them off, killing at least 40 militants.

"It seems they are moving to rural areas," Hannah Donges, a researcher at the Small Arms Survey, told Reuters. "They are easier targets ... It doesn't need sophisticated tactics. It makes them [Boko Haram] less predictable."

Dubbed the Nigerian Taliban, Boko Haram is believed by many to have links with jihadist groups outside Nigeria.

The group has sparked international outrage forthe massacre of 59 children and therecent abduction of nearly 300 schoolgirls.

Violence linked to the Boko Haram insurgency has resulted in an estimated 10,000 deaths between 2002 and 2013.