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Gen Joseph Dunford Jr. Chairman of the joint chiefs of staff briefs the media on recent military operations in Niger, at the Pentagon on 23 October 2017.
Gen Joseph Dunford Jr, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, briefs the media on recent military operations in Niger, at the Pentagon on 23 October 2017. Photograph: Mark Wilson/Getty Images
Gen Joseph Dunford Jr, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, briefs the media on recent military operations in Niger, at the Pentagon on 23 October 2017. Photograph: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Joint chiefs of staff chair says key facts still missing in Niger ambush

This article is more than 6 years old

Marine Corps Gen Joseph Dunford questions whether US had adequate intelligence and equipment, and why it took so long to recover one fallen soldier

Three weeks after four US soldiers died in an ambush in the African nation of Niger, several key questions remain unanswered, America’s most senior military official said on Monday.

The US Marine Corps Gen Joseph Dunford, the joint chiefs of staff chair, said several matters must still be resolved. They include whether the US had adequate intelligence and equipment for its operation, whether there was a planning failure and why it took so long to recover one the bodies.

Dunford said the four US soldiers died after a battle that started on 4 October in a “complex situation”, leading to a “difficult firefight”. At a Pentagon news conference, he tried to outline what the military knew.

He said a group of 12 American forces accompanied 30 Nigerien forces to an area about 85km north of the capital on 3 October.

He said the mission was originally set based on an assessment that they were “unlikely” to come into conflict with any local forces.

“They did not expect resistance on their particular patrol,” he said.

But when they sought the next day to return, they encountered about 50 enemy fighters traveling by vehicle, carrying small arms and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

Within an hour of taking fire, the team requested support. Within another hour, a remote plane flew above. Later, French jets arrived and ferried wounded Americans to safety. The bodies of three Americans killed in the fighting were transported out of the battle scene, but one – Sgt La David Johnson – wasn’t recovered until 6 October.

Dunford said the US had had up to 800 military officials in Niger recently, the largest American force anywhere in sub-Saharan Africa, training and supporting the Nigerien military in fighting insurgents.

And US soldiers would continue assisting local forces despite the fatal ambush, he said. “Our intent is to continue operations there.”

Independent of the military’s investigation, the Johnson family’s ordeal has become a major political dispute in the United States after Donald Trump credited himself with doing more to honor the dead and console families than any of his predecessors.

Then, Johnson’s aunt said Trump had showed “disrespect” to the family as he telephoned to extend condolences. In an extraordinary White House briefing, John Kelly, the former marine general who is Trump’s chief of staff, shot back at Trump’s critics, and the president continued the criticism over the weekend.

Members of Congress are demanding answers about the ambush in a remote corner of Niger, where few Americans travel. Last week, the Arizona senator John McCain, the Republican chairman of the armed services committee, even threatened a subpoena to accelerate the flow of information from the administration.

Dunford defended the broader American mission in Niger. He said US forces had been in the country intermittently for more than two decades. Currently, about 800 US service members are supporting a French-led mission to defeat Islamic State, al-Qaida and Boko Haram in west Africa.

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