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 Saturday amid mounting condemnation by Muslims of the Nigerian terrorist network that abducted more than 300 schoolgirls nearly a month ago, according to Reuters.
News of Friday night's attack came as international efforts to help rescue the 276 missing girls got under way, Reuters reported.
A team of French experts arrived Saturday in Nigeria, said an official in President Francois Hollande's office in Paris, and are expert in collecting intelligence from technical and human sources and in image analysis, according to Reuters.
International outrage at the prolonged failure of Nigeria's military to rescue the girls was joined Saturday by First Lady Michelle Obama, Reuters reported. 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," the first lady said, referring to Malia, 15, and Sasha, 12, according to Reuters. "We see their hopes, their dreams and we can only imagine the anguish their parents are feeling right now."
Former Nigerian military ruler General Ibrahim Babangida urged the country's Muslims to rise up against the extremists sullying the name of Islam, according to Reuters.
"Islam enjoins you to live peacefully with fellow human beings. ... Therefore, anybody who will come and smear our name, all Muslims should kick against that. Muslims should also do everything possible to stop this continued blackmail against the religion of Islam," he said in an interview Saturday with the BBC Hausa Service, Reuters reported.
From Doha, Qatar, the International Union for Muslim Scholars condemned "the terrible crimes offensive to Islam" and said the actions of Boko Haram "are very far from Islamic teachings," according to Reuters.
It called on Boko Haram to immediately release the girls, saying that threats to sell them into slavery are against Islamic Shariah law, Reuters reported. Boko Haram has said it wants to enforce Shariah law across the entire country though Nigeria's population of 170 million is divided almost equally between Christians and Muslims. Shariah is pursued to varying degrees in most northern states.
