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 IS flag and other trucks are packed with what appear to be fighters. The nine-minute video, set to Islamic chanting, includes an image of IS 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. The Defense Department “is aware of alleged photos and IS propaganda video from the October 4, 2017, terrorist attack in Niger. It shows the chaos of the attack, including the soldier wearing the camera being shot dead, with apparent IS fighters stalking past his body. The distressing video, distributed by a pro-IS news agency, includes graphic footage taken by a soldier wearing a helmet camera. A propaganda video released by the Islamic State group showing the deadly ambush of US troops in Niger raised fresh questions Monday as to the nature of the mission and why the soldiers had been left so vulnerable.
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