Evidence US soldier tortured by jihadis

NIGER: The recovery of some of the remains of an American soldier killed by Islamic terrorists in Niger has provided further evidence he was tortured before dying.

Sergeant La David Johnson, a 25-year-old army mechanic, was serving with 3rd Special Forces Group on a training mission in the west African country. His death is at the centre of an investigation into the fatal shooting of three Green Berets, the wounding of two more and his disappearance.

Evidence suggests Johnson was captured by an Isis-affiliated terrorist group close to the border between Niger and Mali on October 4.

The discovery five weeks later of what are understood to be bone fragments from Johnson’s body was made by a joint team of FBI and military investigators sent to Niger to find evidence of the Isis ambush and to interview witnesses to the exchange of fire. Five Nigerian soldiers also died.

French military Super Puma helicopters that arrived on the scene several hours after the ambush began evacuated the dead and wounded but left without Johnson, whose whereabouts were at that stage unknown. An immediate search by US, French and Nigerian troops was launched.

Details of the state of his body have been kept confidential as a mark of respect for his family. Myeshia Johnson, his pregnant widow, was advised by the military against seeing the body. She later claimed that President Trump, who eventually phoned to give his condolences, forgot the name of her husband.

The fragments were found on November 12 at the place where Johnson’s body was recovered two days after the ambush, a little over a kilometre from the scene of the attack. – The Times