Islamic extremists blew up a bridge, killed an unknown number of people and abducted the wife and two children of a retired police officer in northeast Nigeria, residents said today as an international effort got underway to rescue 276 schoolgirls kidnapped by the militants.
News of last night's attack came amid growing condemnation by Muslims in Nigeria and abroad, and by some Islamic militants online, against the Boko Haram terrorist network and its acts.
A team of French experts arrived today in Nigeria to help look for the girls, said an official in President Francois Hollande's office in Paris.
He said they are expert in collecting intelligence from technical and human sources and in image analysis.
British security experts arrived yesterday to join Nigerian and American forces, and Britain said its aim is not only to help in the crisis over the girls but to defeat Nigeria's homegrown Boko Haram terrorist network.
International outrage at the prolonged failure of Nigeria's military to rescue the girls was joined today by US first lady Michelle Obama.
In a radio address on the eve of the Sunday honoring mothers in the United States she said she and President Barack Obama are "outraged and heartbroken" over the April 15 mass abduction.
"In these girls, Barack and I see our own daughters," Mrs. Obama said, referring to Malia, 15, and Sasha, 12. "We see their hopes, their dreams and we can only imagine the anguish their parents are feeling right now."
One of them, the Rev. Enoch Mark, described his despair and anger at the military for not yet finding his two abducted daughters. "For a good 11 days, our daughters were sitting in one place," he told The Associated Press.
"They camped them near Chibok (the town from which they were abducted), not more than 30 kilometers, and no help in hand. For a good 11 days."
He said it is all "very painful. I know my daughter, very obedient and very religious ... She wanted to be a doctor."
A well-known Nigerian Islamic scholar meanwhile warned that having foreign soldiers on Nigerian soil could escalate the conflict and draw foreign extremists to the West African nation. Ahmed Mahmud-Gumi, speaking in northern Kaduna city yesterday, said it "may trigger waves of terrorism never seen before."
"Foreign terrorists are eager to engage foreign forces, making Nigeria just another battle ground" like Afghanistan and Iraq, he said.
