Two hours for backup after Niger ambush
The US soldiers caught in a deadly ambush in Niger this month didn’t call for support until an hour after the attack — and French jets didn’t reach the scene for another hour, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Monday.
The unit of 12 Special Forces soldiers and Nigerian forces came under fire from ISIS-affiliated terrorists in the West African nation on Oct. 4 and “did not call for support until an hour after contact,” Gen. Joseph Dunford said.
“The timeline that we have is the first indicator that the unit called for external support an hour later,” he said, explaining that it’s unclear whether the soldiers felt they were able to handle the attack until they called for help.
“I don’t know that they needed support until that time,” Dunford said. “Our logs indicate that an hour after the contact, they sought support.”
The French got the call to intervene after the “difficult firefight” began, and it took them a halfhour to respond.
Another half-hour later, French fighter jets arrived at the scene, Dunford said.
Most other details of the attack that left four US soldiers dead and two others wounded were still unclear, Dunford said.
Once the investigation is complete, he said, military officials will visit the families of the fallen soldiers and share the information before making it public.
“We owe the families and the US people transparency,” he said.
Dunford acknowledged that there was a “perception that the Department of Defense has not been forthcoming,” which is why he held the press briefing.
“I thought it would be helpful for me to personally clarify to you what we know today, and to outline what we hope to find out in the ongoing investigation,” the general said.
On Oct. 3, the 12 US troops traveled with 30 Nigerian soldiers to the village of Tongo Tongo, about 53 miles north of the capital, Niamey, on a “reconnaissance mission,” Dunford said.
“The assessment by our leaders on the ground at that time was that contact with the enemy was unlikely,” he said.
The next day, the soldiers were moving back to their base when they came under fire from about 50 fighters, believed to be from a local ISISIS affiliate, who attacked them with small arms and rocketpropelled grenades, Dunford said.
Four US Army soldiers — Sgt. La David Johnson, 25, Staff Sgt. Bryan Black, 35, Staff Sgt. Jeremiah Johnson, 39, and Staff Sgt. Dustin Wright, 29 — were killed.
Dunford said there was no indication the soldiers took too many risks.
“I don’t have any indication right now to believe or to know that they did anything other than operate within the orders they were given,” he said.
Dunford defended the broader American mission in Niger, where he said US forces have been stationed intermittently for more than two decades.
He said about 800 troops are there now.