The US has sent 80 army troops to Chad to help search for the 300 Nigerian girls who were kidnapped by an Islamist militant group.

Pentagon spokesperson Lt. Col. Myles Caggins explained that the deployed team will mostly consists of Air Force personnel who will operate a single unarmed drone. The unmanned aircraft will be launched from Chad on a mission to locate the girls abducted by the Boko Haram, according to Fox News.

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The rest of the US troops will function as armed security forces to protect the deployed team. The team was expected to arrive in Nigeria on Wednesday.

US President Barack Obama sent a formal letter about the decision to the Senate as well as House Speaker John Boehner. The letter detailed the steps to be taken to assist in the mission to bring back the kidnapped schoolgirls.

According to Obama, the service members will assist in intelligence, monitoring, and reconnaissance aircraft for their missions in the northern region of Nigeria. He also said the troops will remain in Chad until the place no longer needs its support.

Last month, almost 300 girls were kidnapped by Boko Haram, an Islamic extremist group in Nigeria. As the US became increasingly involved in the search mission, Boko Haram incited new violence in the country.

On Wednesday, residents said the Islamist group attacked three villages in the northern part of Nigeria, leaving 48 dead. A few hours before that, twin bombings in the central city of Jos have killed at least 118 people.

State officials have inferred the Boko Haram is taking advantage of the tribal and religious tensions in the area to further spread armed rebellion from northeastern Nigeria to other dispute-stricken areas of the country.

The newly deployed ground team from the US suggests that the Obama administration now prefers to launch Predator drones over the Global Hawks that they have been using. The latter have a longer range, while the Predators would require a support team nearby to control them.