US TO DESIGNATE BOKOHARAM AS A TERROR GROUP

The State Department will designate Boko Haram, a Nigeria-based extremist group with ties to al Qaeda, and Ansaru, an offshoot, as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, U.S. officials made it known.

The move enables the United States to freeze assets, impose travel bans on known members and affiliates, and prohibit Americans from offering material support.

The United States says Boko Haram has killed

thousands since 2009. Human rights groups put the figure at more than 3,000.

Boko Haram, which means "Western education is sacrilege" in the Hausa-Fulani language, has launched a self-described "war on Christians" and seeks to impose a strict version of Sharia law across northeastern Nigeria, if not the entire country.

It has attacked various targets in the West African nation since its formation in the late 1990s, according to the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center. This includes killing and kidnapping Westerners, and bombing schools, churches and mosques, the center said.

In August, militants allegedly went into a mosque in Borno state and killed 44 worshipers.

The group released a video boasting that it was growing stronger and had launched attacks in Benisheikh in September that the State Department said left 160 civilians dead, many of them Muslim women and children.

Opinion: Should U.S. fear Boko Haram?

In recent months, it has stepped up attacks against students at English-language schools. In September, the State Department said Boko Haram attacked an agricultural school, killing 50 students in their dorm as they slept.

Earlier this month, the United Nations warned the extremist group could be found guilty of crimes against humanity after it launched a brutal attack on a wedding party that killed more than 30 people.

The U.N. refugee agencies estimates more than 8,000 people in Northern Nigeria have fled into neighboring Cameroon to escape the escalating violence and another 5,000 have become internally displaced.

While the group's principle focus is Nigeria, the United States cites links to the al Qaeda affiliate in West Africa, and extremist groups in Mali.

Gen. Carter Ham, then the commander of U.S. Africa Command, warned Congress that Boko Haram elements "aspire to a broader regional level of attacks," including against United States and European interests.

A Boko Haram suicide attack on the United Nations building two years ago in the Nigerian capital of Abuja killed at least 25 people.

In June 2012, the State Department added several of the group's members to a terrorist blacklist, including its new leader Abubakar Shekau, who has a $7 million bounty on his head.

The decision to designate Boko Haram and Ansaru followed a robust debate.

The administration faced intense pressure from Congress and some officials to list the group, but other officials and experts warned it did not pose a threat to the United States, but that Washington could become a target as a result of the designation.

Other officials argued the Nigerian government could interpret the decision as an American green light to continue its heavy handed crackdown on the organization.

President Goodluck Jonathan stepped up a military campaign against the group six months ago, declaring a six-month state of emergency in May in the three northeastern states worst hit by the violence.

Recent Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch reports accused the Nigerian military of human rights abuses and violations when conducting operations against the group. The UN said it is investigating the claims.