Niger: a Sahel country bumping along (catch all)

[davidbfpo]

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:

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?

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?

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.