U.S. offers help to Nigeria

The White House says the United States is doing what it can to help find and free nearly 300 Nigerian girls kidnapped by Islamic extremists.

White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters Monday the U.S. assistance includes counterterrorism support and logistics to Nigerian investigators. Carney called the April 15 mass abduction "an outrage and a tragedy."

Carney also called Boko Haram a group of terrorists with "heinous and malicious intent."

Carney says President Obama is receiving regular updates from national security advisers who are closely monitoring the situation.

Obama administration officials said on Monday that the United States had offered intelligence and information sharing to the Nigerian authorities, although they declined to specify what federal agency or agencies were helping to locate the missing girls. Marie Harf, a State Department spokeswoman, told reporters at a daily briefing that U.S. officials had indications that many of the girls had "likely been moved out of the country to neighboring countries at this point."