Witnesses say Boko Haram Islamic extremists struck the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri for the first time in months with grenades and suicide bombers. At least 15 people were killed.

They said the suicide bombers blew themselves up as soldiers were trying to repel an attack by insurgents who arrived firing from the back of three trucks and launched grenades that set homes afire in Duwari village, near a major military barracks.

As people fled and soldiers engaged in a shootout, a woman pretending she was a victim of Boko Haram exploded in the midst of a family. A second woman jumped into the fray and detonated herself.

It comes as Nigeria's government says it has contained the Islamic uprising that has killed 20,000 people in six years.