DISQUIET ON THE NIGER FRONT: If American troops are in combat on foreign soil, do Americans have a right to know? When four U.S. soldiers were killed in an attack in the West African nation of Niger last year, it was initially portrayed by the Pentagon as a local “advise and assist” mission that went awry after a surprise attack. The implication was that such routine patrols were being curbed while investigators figured out just what went wrong.

The New York Times reported last night that the U.S. military is only now acknowledging that U.S. Green Berets working with government forces in Niger killed 11 Islamic State militants in a firefight in December, two months after the deadly Oct. 4 encounter. In fact, the military has acknowledged at least 10 other previously unreported attacks on American troops in West Africa between 2015 and 2017, the Times reports.