A senior military official is not disputing a CNN report saying a group of 50 Islamic State fighters ambushed and killed four U.S. soldiers last week in the West African nation of Niger.
“I wouldn’t dispute it,” the official told the Washington Examiner.
Officially, the military won’t confirm who conducted the attack or how many fighters were involved.
“We don’t have the number of enemy fighters and no group is taking the blame for the attack,” U.S. Africa Command spokesman Col. Mark Cheadle wrote in an email. “There are several militant and terrorist groups in this area.”
CNN reported Wednesday that an unnamed Pentagon official had confirmed that 12 American soldiers, who were accompanying soldiers from Niger on what was supposed to be a routine visit to a local village, were surprised by the large group of ISIS-affiliated fighters.
The Pentagon has confirmed the four deaths, but provided little additional details of the incident except to say the U.S. troops died as a result of enemy fire while on a joint U.S. and Nigerien train, advise, and assist mission.
On Monday, Gen. Mark Milley, the Army chief of staff, told reporters the U.S. did have a pretty good idea who was behind the attack, but gave no details.
“We do have information on the group that did it, their nature, their disposition, and so on and so forth,” Milley said at a news conference at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual meeting. “Appropriate organizations within the United States military are digging deeper into that for appropriate action.”
CNN reported that one soldier, Sgt. La David Johnson was missing after the attack, sparking a desperate search in case he was wounded of captured.
His body was found two days after the attack.
CNN said its information came from preliminary after-action interviews conducted by the U.S. military with survivors of the firefight, and was provided a U.S. defense official.
“The Green Beret-led team said that they had just completed a meeting with local leaders and were walking back to their unarmored pick-up trucks when they began taking fire from small arms, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades,” CNN reported on its website.
The report said U.S. troops became suspicious when it appeared villagers were deliberately delaying their departure.
“While the soldiers were attending the meeting with the local village leadership, the rest of the 12-man team was waiting outside, guarding the vehicles that the U.S. troops were using. The ambush by some 50 ISIS-affiliated fighters took place while the two groups of U.S. soldiers were still separated, meaning it occurred during what one official described as their ‘most vulnerable point,'” the CNN report said.
