The ambush in Niger that left four U.S. soldiers dead was the result of a major intelligence failure—and more than two weeks after the fatal incident, the Pentagon is still unable to confirm who is responsible.
The Pentagon says groups linked to both ISIS and Al Qaeda are active in and around Niger, but won’t explicitly blame anyone.
There are many questions about what went down in Niger, but few answers at this point.
Staff Sergeants Bryan Black, Dustin Wright, Jeremiah Johnson and Sergeant La David Johnson—the four soldiers killed in the October 4 ambush—were part of a 12-man team training Nigerien troops. They were departing from a meeting with village elders when they were ambushed by roughly 50 militants.
The soldiers were in unarmored pickup trucks, so they immediately got out of the vehicles and returned fire. A 30-minute firefight ensued, which was eventually broken up by French air support and the soldiers were evacuated with helicopters. – READ MORE
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