Questions remain about what intelligence failures may have occurred that allowed such a large attack, and why the soldiers did not get immediate back up or air support. 'Knowing that they were asked to try and complete and execute this type of mission with that type of equipment, I just could not believe it,' Republican Congressman Marc Veasey told CBS news. Pentagon video reveals new details of deadly Niger ambush By Barbara Starr, CNN Pentagon Correspondent Updated 11:01 PM EDT, Wed Link Copied Video reveals details of deadly. The body of one US soldier, Sergeant La David Johnson, was not recovered until the following day. In a frantic bid to find some sort of concealment, the troops deployed red smoke grenades but the parched landscape of scrub and dirt provided no effective cover.Īt one point in the video, a US soldier is shot and a comrade attempts to pull him to cover behind the SUV.Īs their position is about overrun, they have no choice but to try to run away, but there is nowhere to hide.įour American soldiers were killed along with at least five Nigerien troops. The mission was supposed to be a low-risk patrol and the soldiers were clearly ill-equipped for the scale of the attack.įootage shows the US troops wearing only light body armor, desperately seeking cover behind an unarmored SUV while coming under heavy fire. They were attacked by a group of some 50 IS-affiliated fighters equipped with small arms, grenades and trucks mounted with guns. The October 4 attack occurred as a unit of 12 American special forces soldiers and 30 Nigerien troops returned from the village of Tongo Tongo, near the border with Mali. One of the vehicles is flying an ISIS flag and other trucks are packed with what appear to be fighters. The nine-minute video, set to Islamic chanting, includes an image of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and footage of pick-up trucks rolling through a desert landscape. The release of these materials demonstrates the depravity of the enemy we are fighting,' the Pentagon said in a statement. It also described multiple acts of heroism, as members of the outmanned and outgunned Army Special Forces team fought to protect one another.The Defense Department 'is aware of alleged photos and ISIS propaganda video from the Octoterrorist attack in Niger. The investigation into the incident found there were a number of failures associated with the mission, but none directly caused the enemy ambush. The video shows the Nigeriens carrying his body to the back of a waiting truck, and later transferring him to a helicopter. Nigerien military forces located Johnson’s body about two days later in the heavy brush where he had taken cover and fought in his final stand against the enemy.

The bodies of the others who were killed had been recovered, but Johnson, 25, of Miami Gardens, Florida, could not be found. US Africa Command launched a search and recovery mission for the one American soldier who was missing, Sgt La David Johnson. No one was injured in the brief gunfight. For 48 seconds they fired on the team with automatic weapons, until they were able to confirm their identity. The drone video zooms in on them, and flashes of gunfire light up the screen.Ī Nigerien response force had arrived to help, and mistook the team for enemy insurgents. The video shifts to an overhead view near the team waiting at the clearing, and two trucks can be seen moving into the frame. Some of the militants can be seen moving quickly away.Īfter nearly three hours of waiting, French helicopters arrived, and an American soldier can be seen moving out into the clearing, waving a US flag to help the aircraft locate them.

About 20 minutes later, two unarmed US drones arrived overhead and established contact with the team after another seven minutes, two French Mirage aircraft flew past at a low altitude, in a show of force to frighten the enemy. “They wrote short messages to loved ones on personal devices, believing they would soon be overrun,” the video narrator says.

They crossed through a swamp, and at about 12.50pm on 4 October they took cover at the edge of a clearing. The video depicts seven American forces and four Nigeriens fleeing on foot, under heavy mortar and small arms fire. A number of the Nigeriens escaped by truck, but four US and five Nigerien troops died in the ambush. The team was heading home after collecting intelligence from the site when it was attacked by more than 100 militants just outside the village of Tongo Tongo. Forty-six US and Nigerien troops were involved in the initial mission in the west African nation, a failed attempt to find a high-value militant.

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