Silence as questions remain over deadly Niger ambush
A CNN report with some more details and more questions:
Quote:
Officials said the 12 man Green Beret-led team had just completed a meeting with local leaders and were walking back to their unarmored pick-up trucks when the unexpected ambush resulted in a firefight that lasted 30 minutes.
(Later) .....the unit in Niger "had actually done 29 patrols without contact over the previous six months," Joint Staff Director Lt. Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. told reporters.
Link:http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/13/po...nce/index.html
The film clip has a sentence akin to Niger has not given the USA permission to launch air strikes.
In the dust a HVT opportunity may explain their deaths
Jason Burke, in The Observer, is an accomplished journalist on terrorism; his article helps to provide the context and some pointers to why the four soldiers died in:
Quote:
That there are conflicting accounts of the clash is not surprising. It occurred in an environment where hard fact is rare, and rumours swirl as fiercely as the dust storms that sweep the scrub and desert.
Was this man the target?
Quote:
Al-Sahraoui’s background and allegiance is evidence of the extremely fractured nature of the conflict across the swath of northern Africa known as the Sahel. The 40-year-old is thought to have grown up in refugee camps in the south of Algeria, where he was committed to the nationalist cause of the Western Sahara. Little is known about how he became interested in Islamist extremism.....
Did the Niger-SOF team use their initiative?
Quote:
Any soldier knows that if you give guys on the ground more independence, then they will be that much more aggressive and will take more risks.
Link:https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...rces-islamists
I have changed the thread's title to four SOF dead, after the fourth soldier was found. RIP.
Death of U.S. Soldiers in Niger Sparks FBI Probe, Criticism
What's Up With The Headgear?
what's up with the picture of the 4 dead service persons? Two have Green Berets? One has no beret? One has a maroon beret (of the 82nd Airborne)but has an SF flash and SF emblem?
It was originally reported they were all Green Berets. So what's up?
Conflicting Accounts in Niger Ambush Are Subject of Pentagon Investigation
New Details Emerge About Attack That Killed U.S. Soldiers in Niger
Administration Sees No Change in Rules or Mission of U.S. Troops in Niger