3 militants led deadly ambush on U.S. soldiers
WASHINGTON — The United States has identified at least three Islamic State leaders accused of planning and directing an ambush last October in Niger that killed four U.S. soldiers, officials said, locking the U.S. military in an additional and possibly lengthy campaign to hunt and kill members of a little-known extremist group in northwest Africa.
The group, known as ISIS in the Greater Sahara, claimed responsibility in January for the Oct. 4 attack that killed Army Sergeant La David Johnson, 25; and Staff Sergeants Bryan Black, 35; Jeremiah Johnson, 39; and Dustin Wright, 29.
The group was designated a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department two weeks ago.
One of the three militants who led the ambush, Doundoun Cheffou, is most likely alive, according to government documents that were described by two U.S. military officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The two other militants were killed in the ambush. Cheffou’s whereabouts is unknown, according to the documents. The U.S. soldiers and Nigerian troops were searching for Cheffou, a one-time cattle herder and a senior lieutenant of a former affiliate of al Qaeda, when they left their base on the fateful mission in October that is now code-named Operation Desolate Bastion by the Pentagon.
Representatives from U.S. Special Operations Forces and the State Department — and, most likely, the CIA — met at a base in Niger last month to examine a web of intelligence surrounding the ambush.
They singled out highranking militants that led the group of fighters that attacked the team of U.S. soldiers, including Green Berets, and their Nigerian counterparts. But the officials at the meeting also identified roughly 20 low-level fighters, according to the documents that outline the discussion. The Pentagon has said that the U.S. team involved in the ambush killed 20 to 25 militants.
French and Nigerian security officials say ISIS in the Greater Sahara has 40 to 60 core members. It is often joined by sympathetic villagers and it has temporary alliances with other local groups.