Report: America is worried that Boko Haram is planning to attack U.S. interests in Africa

YouTube/Screenshot

Report: America is worried that Boko Haram is planning to attack U.S. interests in Africa
(Image credit: YouTube/Screenshot)

Anonymous U.S. intelligence officials tell NBC News they have "fragmentary evidence" that Boko Haram, the Islamic extremist group that kidnapped some 270 Nigerian schoolgirls, may be planning an attack on U.S. interests in Africa.

"Boko Haram has a long standing interest in this," said one senior U.S. counterterrorism official when asked about the possibility of an attack. "… It's consistent with what we've seen from them. Broadly speaking, it's in line with what we are tracking." [NBC News]

These officials did not offer details on the nature of their new evidence.

Boko Haram has long wanted to attack targets that would hurt the U.S. But officials believe that America's involvement in helping to hunt for the missing schoolgirls has increased this desire.

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Jordan Valinsky is the lead writer for Speed Reads. Before joining The Week, he wrote for New York Observer's tech blog, Betabeat, and tracked the intersection between popular culture and the internet for The Daily Dot. He graduated with a degree in online journalism from Ohio University.