Top general weighs in on Niger, South Korea
SEOUL, South Korea — The Pentagon’s top general said Thursday that he is “very frustrated with the drip, drip, drip of information” seeping out in the media about an Oct. 4 ambush in Africa that killed four U.S. soldiers and five Nigerien troops, but he acknowledged that “everyone is doing their job” in examining it.
Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he would prefer to let investigators quietly compile all the information and then brief the families involved before they read accounts of the battle in the media. But the issue is more complicated than that, he said.
“It’s the world as it is,” said Dunford, traveling on a flight from Washington to South Korea.
The ambush, in southwestern Niger, caught a team of 12 soldiers with 3rd Special Forces Group and 30 Nigerien soldiers partnered with them. The body of Army Sgt. La David T. Johnson was not recovered for two days, prompting senior U.S. officials to deploy elite U.S. commandos with Joint Special Operations Command.
Johnson, 25, was a conventional U.S. soldier who worked as a mechanic and was attached to the team. The other U.S. soldiers killed were Staff Sgt. Jeremiah Johnson, 39; Staff Sgt. Bryan C. Black, 35; and Staff Sgt. Dustin Wright, 29. Staff Sgt. Johnson was a conventional soldier trained to work with chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons; Black and Wright were Green Berets.
Dunford arrived in South Korea’s capital Thursday to meet with South Korean military officials ahead of Trump’s visit next month.
Dunford said that his annual meeting with senior South Korean military officials will address everything from bolstering ballistic missile defense to fortifying computer networks against cyberespionage.
“We have been on a path toward increased South Korean capability for a long time,” Dunford said.
Earlier, Dunford had said he will discuss a South Korean request for ballistic missiles with larger conventional warheads and other upgrades to the South Korean military’s ground and maritime weapons.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis also is expected to visit defense officials in South Korea this week, picking up where Dunford leaves off.
About 28,500 U.S. troops have been stationed in South Korea for years.
The Navy announced this week that it has deployed three aircraft carriers — the USS Nimitz, the USS Theodore Roosevelt and the USS Ronald Reagan — and their associated strike groups to the western Pacific this week. The movement of the strike groups, each of which include dozens of strike aircraft and thousands of U.S. sailors and Marines, is often viewed as a show of force, but Dunford downplayed the timing.
“These three carriers are not there specifically targeting North Korea,” the chairman said. “This is a routine demonstration of our commitment to the region.”