appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

liveArticle

appConfig

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sectionsV2

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

json

Reuters

The US military said on Friday that a fourth soldier was killed during an attack on Wednesday in Niger, raising the death toll from an incident that has thrown a spotlight on the US counterterrorism mission in the West African nation.
The United States had previously announced that three US Army Special Forces soldiers had been killed and another two wounded when a joint US-Nigerien patrol came under attack near the village of Tongo Tongo.
It did not disclose until Friday that a fourth soldier had been missing. Officials said his body was found by Nigerien forces on Friday morning near the site of the ambush, ending an extensive rescue and recovery mission.
No group has taken responsibility for the killings, although officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, say the US suspects a local branch of Islamic State was responsible.
The US military’s Africa Command declined to publicly name any group but said the American military would hunt down the insurgents.
Unidentified ambushers kill three US commandos and five allies in Niger
It was not meant to be an engagement with the enemy. It was meant to establish relations with the local leaders
Mark Cheadle
“Absolutely, we are resolved and stalwart in our efforts to go after those who attacked this joint patrol of Nigerien and US forces,” said Army Colonel Mark Cheadle, a spokesman for the US military’s Africa Command.
From initial accounts, the 40-member patrol, which included about a dozen US troops, came under a swift attack by militants riding in a dozen vehicles and on about 20 motorcycles.
Islamist militants form part of a regional insurgency in the poor, sparsely populated deserts of West Africa’s Sahel.
Jihadists have stepped up attacks on UN peacekeepers, Malian soldiers and civilian targets since being driven back in northern Mali by a French-led military intervention in 2013.
US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron discussed joint counterterrorism operations in the Sahel to defeat al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups during a call on Friday, the White House said.
Cheadle said the US and Nigerien troops had been meeting with local leadership at the time of the attack, in what had been seen as a relatively lower-risk endeavour for America’s elite commandos.
There was not even any armed air cover at the time that could carry out air strikes if necessary.
Village of Tongo Tongo, Niger


“It was not meant to be an engagement with the enemy. It was meant to establish relations with the local leaders and the threats at the time were deemed to be unlikely, so there was no overhead armed air cover during the engagement,” he said.
Cheadle acknowledged that loss of elite US forces would trigger a review of how the US military carries out operations but did not suggest any move to scale back the American mission.
The US military on Friday published the names of the three Army Special Forces soldiers from 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) who were killed when their reconnaissance patrol with Nigerien forces came under fire.
They were Staff Sergeant Bryan Black, 35, Staff Sergeant Jeremiah Johnson, 39, and Staff Sergeant Dustin Wright, 29.
The US military said it had surged resources to Niger to try to locate the missing American soldier. Cheadle said that included US fighter jets, helicopters and surveillance assets.
“There was a full-court press,” he said.


Mali’s military rulers in crisis as defence minister is killed in massive coordinated attacks

China is poised to reap rewards as energy shock heats up the race for renewables

China’s Tianqi Lithium to favour domestic salt lakes over Africa amid resource nationalism

Mali junta reports ‘terrorist’ attacks on several targets

Africa

Pentagon confirms fourth US soldier killed in Niger ambush after search and rescue mission

The Pentagon has confirmed that a fourth US Special Armed Forces soldier has died after an attack on a patrol in Niger earlier in the week, which also left four Nigerian soldiers dead. Photo: EPA

News

World

No group has taken responsibility for the killings, although officials say suspect a local branch of Islamic State was responsible.


Pentagon confirms fourth US soldier killed in Niger ambush after search and rescue mission

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}No group has taken responsibility for the killings, although officials say suspect a local branch of Islamic State was responsible.

No group has taken responsibility for the killings, although officials say suspect a local branch of Islamic State was responsible.