Adam Nossiter and Rick Gladstone New Kidnapping Reported in Nigeria as U.S. Offers Help
ABUJA, Nigeria — Armed extremists in northern Nigeria have carried out another brazen kidnapping of young girls, the United Nations Children’s Fund and a local official said on Tuesday, adding to the international uproar over the abduction of more than 200 girls seized from a school in the same part of the country last month. ...
Jay Carney, a White House spokesman, told reporters in Washington that the assistance, including American military personnel and experts in hostage negotiations, was offered to Mr. Jonathan in a telephone call with Secretary of State John Kerry. In addition, the State Department issued an updated warning to American citizens, admonishing them to avoid nonessential travel to parts of northern Nigeria “due to the risk of kidnappings, robberies and other armed attacks.”
Mr. Tada said 11 girls, 12 to 15 years old, had been abducted from two villages, Warabe and Wala, on Sunday night by members of Boko Haram. He said the kidnappers, armed with AK-47 rifles, had not shot anyone but seized grain and livestock from the villagers “while the abducted girls were hurled into an 18-seater bus before they fled.”
I just reported that the Nigerian government has just accepted the U.S. offer of assistance in the form of a "coordination cell," of which I believe the F.B.I. team reported by Ericlewis0, is just one part. Just before those announcements, 20 U.S. Senators led by Senators have signed a letter to President Ob is on their way to Nigeria, (see link and brief summary in update to article just posted.)
CNN is reporting that Boco Haram has had training links to al Qaeda groups and that Saudi Arabia has just busted a major al Qaeda group there arresting more than 60 and looking for 40 more. CNN also reports intelligence "chatter" reporter al Qaeda groups planning to step up operations.
CNN also broadcasts the travel warning issued for northern parts of Nigeria.
A respected Islamic theological institute in Egypt Al-Azhar denounced the kidnappings saying this “completely contradicts the teaching of Islam and its tolerant principles."
2:23 PM PT:
20 female U.S. Senators send letter to President Obama to do more to save kidnapped Nigerian girls
Pamela Constable, of The Washington Post, writes Protesters rally outside Nigerian Embassy to demand action over schoolgirls’ abduction, which describes 20 U.S. women Senators sending a letter to President Obama urging him to take stronger steps to rescue the approximately 230 Nigerian school girls kidnapped by the terrorist group Boco Haram. CNN has just announced that the Nigerian government as formally agreed to accept U.S. help in the form of a "coordination cell," which you can read about below.
Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who organized the signings with Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), said later that the situation is “so horrendous and the comments made by the head of this group that girls should be married between ages 9 and 12 and should be denied any kind of education call out for a vigorous response from all around the world -- men and women alike. But I think having the 20 women senators lead the way is the beginning of sending very powerful signal. It’s not sufficient, but it’s a first step of the actions we want to take.”
Collins said the letter would request that President Obama ask the United Nations to classify Boko Haram as a terrorist organization and take steps to impose sanctions against the group. The State Department already classifies the organization as a terrorist group.
On Saturday, Secretary of State John F. Kerry called the mass abduction an “unconscionable crime” and pledged U.S. aid to the Lagos government in finding and returning the missing girls. Boko Haram has terrorized parts of northeastern Nigeria for five years, killing more than 1,000 people.
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Ashley Fantz Aminu Abubakar, of CNN, writes
Villagers: More girls kidnapped in Nigeria, reporting that the United States and Nigeria are going to set up a special coordination cell" to provide intelligence, investigations, and hostage negotiation expertise," according to the U.S. State department.
The U.S. Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria, is ready to create a "coordination cell" to provide intelligence, investigations and hostage negotiation expertise, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. The cell would include U.S. military personnel, she said.
Secretary of State John Kerry called Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday to reiterate an offer to help, Psaki said. The conversation happened on the same day that CNN and the Reuters news agency confirmed that at least eight more girls had been snatched in Warabe village, which is in the northeastern part of the country. ...
CNN interviewed Senators Sue Collins (R) and Barbara Mikulski (D) who are leading the 20 women serving in the Senate. Senator Collins urged our president to use special forces to rescue the Nigerian girls. Senator Mikulski was more circumspect, urging our military and intelligence functions to cooperate with some Nigerian and regional African special forces groups who would lead ground operations, which seems to be the actual plan. Senator Mikulski also suggested putting Boco Haram on a list of terrorist organizations at the U.N. in order to activate global sanctions.
Our hearts, sympathies, and prayers go out to all these girls, their families, Nigerian, and all the other families and victims of child slavery around the world which is much to common. We need to use this incident to focus more attention on this whole vile global shame.
2:25 PM PT: US Sending FBI Security Team to Nigeria to Find Kidnapped Girls
2:38 PM PT: Ammar Benaziz and Mohammed Jamjoom, of CNN, report, Saudis seize dozens of militants said linked to al Qaeda
(CNN) -- Authorities in Saudi Arabia targeting al Qaeda-linked militants have embarked on a large counterterror operation across the country, authorities said Tuesday.
Security forces arrested 62 members of a terror cell linked to al Qaeda in Yemen and Syria, Saudi state media reported, citing the Interior Ministry.
Police still sought 44 others suspected of involvement with the terror cell, the Saudi Press Agency said. The terror group planned to target installations inside the kingdom with the support of al Qaeda, state-run TV reported.
2:47 PM PT: Perhaps, the U.S. is signaling al Qaeda not to try to attempt to exploit these events opportunistically? I see lots of reports of local al Qaeda groups being mopped up in "rolling" operations, including those with U.S. drones working in cooperation with local government ground troops as I mentioned the possibility of above.
Yemen army captures key Al-Qaeda stronghold - Government forces capture main stronghold in the south of the country, forcing AQAP fighters to flee to the mountains. Could this be a model of how U.S. forces with drones might cooperate with local forces on the ground to wrap up local Boco Haram units?
Yemeni government forces have captured the main stronghold of the al-Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula (AQAP), officials have said.
"The army and the Popular Committee members have completed control of al-Mahfid and we are now in the centre of the district. Al-Qaeda elements have fled to the mountains, but we will keep going after them," Qassem said.
The offensive follows a series of air strikes, including US drones attacks against suspected AQAP areas, in which some 65 people have been killed.