Helmet cam video shows Niger ambush of US soldiers
NIGERIA (AFP) — A propaganda video released by the Islamic State (IS) group that apparently shows 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.
The video, distributed by a pro-IS news agency, includes graphic footage recorded by a US soldier wearing a helmet camera, later stolen by IS fighters.
It shows the chaos of the attack, including the soldier wearing the camera being shot dead, with apparent IS fighters walking past his body.
The Defense Department “is aware of alleged photos and IS propaganda video from the Oct. 4, 2017 terrorist attack in Niger. The release of these materials demonstrates the depravity of the enemy we are fighting,” the Pentagon said in a statement.
Pentagon spokesman Col. Rob Manning accused news outlets reporting on the video as being “complicit in amplifying IS propaganda.”
The mission was supposed to be a low-risk patrol and the soldiers were clearly illequipped for the scale of the attack.
Footage shows US troops wearing only limited body armour, desperately seeking cover behind an unarmored SUV while coming under heavy fire.
In a frantic bid to find some sort of concealment, the troops deployed red smoke grenades but the parched landscape of scrub and dirt provided no effective cover.
At one point in the video, a US soldier is shot and a comrade attempts to pull him to cover behind the SUV.
As their position is about overrun, they have no choice but to try to run away, but there is nowhere to hide.
Four American soldiers were killed along with at least five Nigerien troops. The body of one US soldier, Sgt. La David Johnson, was not recovered until the following day.
“Knowing that they were asked to try and complete and execute this type of mission with that type of equipment, I just could not believe it,” Republican Congressman Marc Veasey told CBS news.
Questions remain about what intelligence failures may have occurred that allowed such a large attack, and why the soldiers did not get immediate back up or air support.
The Americans had been on a joint patrol with Nigerien counterparts they were training when they were ambushed by motorcycle-riding and car-driving gunmen in the Tillaberi region in the Niger’s southwest.
Pentagon investigators have completed a probe into the incident, and that report is currently under review by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.