Islamic militant attack in Nigeria kills hundreds

LAGOS, Nigeria - Islamic militants who have triggered international outrage over the kidnapping of more than 270 Nigerian schoolgirls opened fire on a busy marketplace, killing hundreds of people in a new spasm of violence in the country's northeast.

The attack escalates Nigeria's growing crisis from a campaign of bombings, massacres, and abductions being waged by the Boko Haram terrorist network in its campaign to impose an Islamic state on Africa's most populous nation.

As many as 300 people were killed in the assault late Monday on the town of Gamboru Ngala on Nigeria's border with Cameroon. The extremists opened fire on a marketplace bustling with shoppers taking advantage of the cooler nighttime temperatures in the semidesert region, then rampaged through the town for 12 hours, setting houses ablaze and shooting those who tried to escape.

The attack and hundreds of casualties were confirmed by Borno state information commissioner Mohammed Bulama, who spoke to the Associated Press by telephone Wednesday.

Nigerian federal Sen. Ahmed Zannah blamed fighters of the Boko Haram terrorist network that has claimed responsibility for the April 15 kidnapping of 276 teenage girls from their boarding school in Chibok, in northeastern Borno state. The insurgents threatened to sell the young women into slavery in a video seen by AP.

Outrage over the missing girls and the government's failure to rescue them brought angry Nigerian protesters into the streets this week in an embarrassment for the government of President Goodluck Jonathan, who had hoped to showcase the country's emergence as Africa's largest economy as it hosted the Africa meeting of the World Economic Forum, the continent's version of Davos.

Offers of international assistance have poured in, with the Obama administration announcing Tuesday it was sending personnel and equipment to help Nigerian forces in their search for the girls in the vast Sambisa Forest. Jonathan confirmed that he has accepted the U.S. assistance, which the Pentagon said Wednesday will help with communications, logistics and intelligence planning, but will not include military operations.

Britain and China announced Wednesday that Nigeria has accepted their offers of help, and France said it was sending in a "specialized team" to help with search and rescue of the girls.

"In the face of such an appalling act, France, like other democratic nations, must react," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said. "This crime will not go unpunished."

Fabius gave no details, except to say the team was being drawn from forces already in the region.