LAGOS, Nigeria -- The international effort to rescue the 276 schoolgirls held captive by Islamic extremists in northeastern Nigeria was boosted Friday when British security experts joined the Nigerian and American forces trying to rescue the students.
As the worldwide effort got underway, the weakness of the Nigerian military was exposed in a report issued by Amnesty International.
Britain said its aim was not only to help with the current crisis but to defeat Boko Haram as well.
"The team will be considering not just the recent incidents but also longer-term counterterrorism solutions to prevent such attacks in the future and defeat Boko Haram," the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said in a statement Friday.
The American team was joined by six additional military officers and more are expected soon, said Pentagon spokesman Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby. The U.S. officers will do a "gap analysis," an assessment to identify what the Nigerian military needs that the U.S. could provide in the search for the girls, he said.
Hostage negotiations is another area where the American team will assist, said U.S. State Department spokesman Jen Psaki.
China, France and Spain also have promised help. Interpol, the international police agency, also said in a statement Friday that it could send a team to Nigeria to help authorities there with investigative and analytical support.
The weakness of the Nigerian armed forces was highlighted Friday in a report that said the military did not respond to warnings that Boko Haram rebels were about to attack Chibok, the town where the young women were abducted from their school.
Nigerian security forces became aware of the attack by Boko Haram on the town after 7 p.m. on April 14, Amnesty said Friday in a statement citing "credible sources" it interviewed. By midnight, the attack was underway, and the girls were kidnapped in the early hours of April 15.
"This abduction could have been prevented," Amnesty spokesman Susanna Flood said of the Nigerian military's inaction.
Military spokesman Maj.-Gen. Chris Olukolade didn't answer three calls to his mobile phone seeking comment.
The mass kidnapping has focused the world's attention on Boko Haram and on the response of President Goodluck Jonathan's government.
"I believe that the kidnap of these girls will be the beginning of the end of terror in Nigeria," said Jonathan at an economic forum Thursday.
Jonathan's government is accused of being slow to mount rescue operations, which the government denies. The military said in a statement late Thursday that it opposed attempts of some civic groups to "drag the military into politics."
Boko Haram has staged many attacks in northeastern Nigeria in recent years, a campaign of bombings and massacres that has intensified despite a strong military presence there. Since May 2013 there has been a state of emergency in three northeastern Nigerian states wracked by Boko Haram violence.
Boko Haram has killed more than 1,500 people this year. The militants who want to impose Islamic Shariah law on Nigeria. In a video, Boko Haram's leader threatened to sell the kidnapped girls into slavery.
The government of Borno state, where the girls were abducted, on Thursday identified the girls who escaped. It said in a statement received Friday that the girls it identified by name include those who fled the day they were kidnapped and those who escaped from Boko Haram camps days later. It did not explain the decision to name the girls.
Chibok residents staged a street protest Friday to press Borno's government to do more to find the schoolgirls.
Militants from Boko Haram also are believed to have carried out the bombing of a strategic bridge linking the town of Gamboru to the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, the headquarters of the Nigerian military offensive, a government official confirmed Friday.
Gamboru was attacked Monday by Boko Haram, leaving many dead. Estimates of the death toll from that attack ranged from 100 to as many as 300. Security officials said Friday that Boko Haram militants bombed the bridge as they retreated after the attack on Gamboru's main market, where at least 50 bodies have since been discovered in the debris of burned shops.
Communications with the remote town are difficult and it was not immediately possible to reconcile conflicting accounts of when the bridge was bombed. One account said Monday while another said Thursday.
Traders in Gamboru said Friday that their businesses were suffering, with trailers and heavy trucks now stranded on either side of the damaged bridge.
"We are in trouble," said Gamboru resident Mamman Abu.
Also Friday, the U.N. Security Council called for Boko Haram to be held accountable for crimes against humanity and hinted at sanctions against the group.
The statement approved by all 15 council members was the strongest by the U.N.'s most powerful body on the Nigerian terrorist attacks.
The council expressed "profound outrage" at Boko Haram's abductions and demanded the schoolgirls' immediate and unconditional release.
The council said terrorist attacks conducted by Boko Haram since 2009 "have caused large-scale and devastating loss of life and represent a threat to the stability and peace of west and central Africa."
Security Council members expressed their intention to follow the situation of the abducted girls "and to consider appropriate measures against Boko Haram," which in diplomatic language means possible sanctions.
Meanwhile, the U.N. refugee agency expressed alarm Friday at the swelling tide of people fleeing northeast Nigeria to escape Boko Haram attacks.
Up to 1,000 people are crossing the border into southern Niger every week from fear of attacks by the group and counterattacks by the Nigerian armed forces. Smaller numbers have arrived in Cameroon and Chad, said Adrian Edwards, a spokesman for the refugee agency.
Refugees are providing accounts of grenade attacks on markets killing villagers and livestock, summary executions and villages and their crops being burned to the ground.
"Some have witnessed friends or family members being randomly singled out and killed in streets," Edwards said.
The Nigerian authorities have reported that 250,000 people are now displaced within the country and more than 60,000 have fled across borders, Edwards said.
After crossing the border, those fleeing violence were still at risk because of a lack of security and the remoteness of the region, Edwards said, noting the refugee agency had moved people arriving in northern Cameroon from Borno to a location 25 miles from the border for their safety.
In the U.S., first lady Michelle Obama is set to deliver the president's weekly address today.
The White House said she will focus the radio and Internet address on Mother's Day and the kidnapped Nigerian girls.
This week, the first lady tweeted a photo of herself in the White House holding a sign with the message "(hashtag) Bring Back Our Girls."
The first lady has joined President Barack Obama on past weekly addresses. Today's will be the first one she delivers alone.
Information for this article was contributed by Michelle Faul, Haruna Umar, Bashir Adigun, Harold Heckle, Danica Kirka, Deb Riechmann, Robert Burns, Edith Lederer and Darlene Superville of The Associated Press; by Daniel Magnowski of Bloomberg News; and by Nick Cumming-Bruce of The New York Times.
A Section on 05/10/2014