In this Thursday Nov. 27, 2014 photo, children displaced after attacks by Boko Haram, line up in the camp of internal displace people, in Yola, Nigeria. Seven children have been reunited with parents... (Associated Press) 
 
 YOLA, Nigeria (AP) — Hundreds of bodies — too many to count — remain strewn in the bush in Nigeria from an Islamic extremist attack that Amnesty International suggested Friday is the "deadliest massacre" in the history of Boko Haram. 
 
 Mike Omeri, the government spokesman on the insurgency, said fighting continued Friday for Baga, a town on the border with Chad where insurgents seized a key military base on Jan. 3 and attacked again on Wednesday. 
 
 "Security forces have responded rapidly, and have deployed significant military assets and conducted airstrikes against militant targets," Omeri said in a statement. 
 
 District head Baba Abba Hassan said most victims are children, women and elderly people who could not run fast enough when insurgents drove into Baga, firing rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles on town residents. 
 
 "The human carnage perpetrated by Boko Haram terrorists in Baga was enormous," Muhammad Abba Gava, a spokesman for poorly armed civilians in a defense group that fights Boko Haram, told The Associated Press. 
 
 He said the civilian fighters gave up on trying to count all the bodies. "No one could attend to the corpses and even the seriously injured ones who may have died by now," Gava said. 
 
 An Amnesty International statement said there are reports the town was razed and as many as 2,000 people killed. 
 
 If true, "this marks a disturbing and bloody escalation of Boko Haram's ongoing onslaught," said Daniel Eyre, Nigeria researcher for Amnesty International. 
 
 In Washington, U.S. State Department Spokesman Jen Psaki condemned the attacks. 
 
 "We urge Nigeria and its neighbors to take all possible steps to address the urgent threat of Boko Haram. Even in the face of these horrifying attacks, terrorist organizations like Boko Haram must not distract Nigeria from carrying out credible and peaceful elections that reflect the will of the Nigerian people," Psaki said in a statement. 
 
 The previous bloodiest day in the uprising involved soldiers gunning down unarmed detainees freed in a March 14, 2014, attack on Giwa military barracks in Maiduguri city. Amnesty said then that satellite imagery indicated more than 600 people were killed that day. 
 
 The 5-year insurgency killed more than 10,000 people last year alone, according to the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations. More than a million people are displaced inside Nigeria and hundreds of thousands have fled across its borders into Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria. 
 
 Emergency workers said this week they are having a hard time coping with scores of children separated from their parents in the chaos of Boko Haram's increasingly frequent and deadly attacks. 
 
 Just seven children have been reunited with parents in Yola, capital of Adamawa state, where about 140 others have no idea if their families are alive or dead, said Sa'ad Bello, the coordinator of five refugee camps in Yola. 
 
 He said he was optimistic that more reunions will come as residents return to towns that the military has retaken from extremists in recent weeks. 
 
 Suleiman Dauda, 12, said he ran into the bushes with neighbors when extremists attacked his village, Askira Uba, near Yola last year. 
 
 "I saw them kill my father, they slaughtered him like a ram. And up until now I don't know where my mother is," he told The Associated Press at Daware refugee camp in Yola. 
 
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 Umar reported from Bauchi, Nigeria. Associated Press writer Michelle Faul contributed to this story from Johannesburg. 

 Kano, Nigeria (CNN) Boko Haram militants opened fire on northern Nigerian villages, leaving bodies scattered everywhere and as many as 2,000 people feared dead. 
 
 "The attack on Baga and surrounding towns looks as if it could be Boko Haram's deadliest act," Amnesty International said in a statement. 
 
 Islamist militants sprayed bullets as they stormed in last weekend in trucks and armored vehicles, local authorities said Friday. 
 
 When they arrived, they unloaded motorcycles and pursued residents who fled into the bush, firing indiscriminately, said Baba Abba Hassan, a local district head. 
 
 Local officials reported death tolls ranging from hundreds to as many as 2,000 people. 
 
 "Dead bodies litter the bushes in the area and it is still no‎t safe to go and pick them (up) for burial," said Musa Bukar, the chairman of the local government where Baga is located. 
 
 "Some people who hid in their homes were burned alive." 
 
 Raid lasted for days 
 
 During the raid that started January 3, hundreds of gunmen seized the town of Baga and neighboring villages, as well as a multinational military base. 
 
 Attacks started at dawn and continued throughout last weekend, according to residents. 
 
 Though local officials gave conflicting death tolls, they agreed on the massive number of fatalities. 
 
 More than 2,000 people were killed in attacks on 16 villages, Bukar said. He could not explain how he arrived at that toll. 
 
 But the local district head said hundreds of people had been killed, not thousands. The actual toll will be known after a headcount of households is complete, Hassan said. 
 
 An offensive is underway to reclaim the areas from the militants, according to Mike Omeri, a government spokesman. 
 
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 Tens of thousands displaced 
 
 At least 30,000 people were displaced, authorities said. About 20,000 of the displaced camped in Maiduguri city, the capital of Borno state. 
 
 Authorities are making arrangements to transport the 10,000 others from Monguno town, 60 kilometers (36 miles) from Baga. Some residents fled into neighboring Cameroon and Chad. 
 
 "If reports that the town was largely razed to the ground and that hundreds or even as many as 2,000 civilians were killed are true, this marks a disturbing and bloody escalation of Boko Haram's ongoing onslaught against the civilian population," Amnesty International's Daniel Eyre said. 
 
 Boko Haram has terrorized northern Nigeria regularly since 2009, attacking police, schools, churches and civilians, and bombing government buildings. It has also kidnapped students, including more than 200 schoolgirls who were abducted in April and remain missing. 
 
 The Islamist group has said its aim is to impose a stricter form of Sharia law across Nigeria, which is split between a majority Muslim north and a mostly Christian south. 
 
 The United States condemned the attacks, saying the group "shows no regard" for human life. 
 
 "All those responsible for these recurring terrorist attacks must be held accountable," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. 
 
 Threats against Cameroon 
 
 In neighboring Cameroon, President Paul Biya urged the international community to help battle the terror group. His call came after the leader of the terrorist group threatened him in a YouTube video. 
 
 "Oh Paul Biya, if you don't stop this, your evil plot, you will taste what has befallen Nigeria. Your troops cannot do anything to us," Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said in the video released this week. 
 
 The threat against the President came after Cameroonian soldiers killed dozens of Boko Haram fighters this month. 
 
 Biya told the international community that a global response is required to combat the terror group.
– Islamic militants in Nigeria have murdered at least a few hundred people—or perhaps more than 2,000—in attacks that began last weekend and continued again Wednesday, CNN reports. The extremist group Boko Haram began the assaults by storming into several villages, including Baga along the Chad border, in armored vehicles and trucks. The assailants then unloaded motorcycles, boarded them, and pursued people while firing at will. "Dead bodies litter the bushes in the area and it is still no‎t safe to go and pick them (up) for burial," says a senior local official. "Some people who hid in their homes were burned alive." Security forces have responded with "significant military assets" including airstrikes, a government official tells the AP. Most victims are women, children, and the elderly who were unable to outrun Boko Haram's assault weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, the Guardian reports. If the death toll really is around 2,000, "this marks a disturbing and bloody escalation of Boko Haram's ongoing onslaught," says an Amnesty International researcher. In fact, Amnesty says it may be Boko Haram's "deadliest massacre" ever. More than 10,000 have already died in Nigeria's 5-year insurgency.