Chairman Of Joint Chiefs Of Staff Says A Lot About Attack In Niger Is Still Unknown

The nation's highest military officer, Marine General Joseph Dunford, revealed more details today about the deadly ambush in Africa earlier this month where four U.S. soldiers were killed in Niger.

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

The nation's highest military officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Marine General Joseph Dunford, revealed more details today about the deadly ambush in Africa earlier this month. Four American troops were killed in Niger. But Dunford also said there was a great deal he still doesn't know.

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JOSEPH DUNFORD: We owe the families as much information as we can find out about what happened. And we owe the American people an explanation of what their men and women were doing at this particular time.

SIEGEL: Joining us from the Pentagon is NPR's Tom Bowman. And, Tom, what did we learn about, first of all, who was responsible for this attack?

TOM BOWMAN, BYLINE: Well, what General Dunford said is it looks like it was an ISIS-affiliated group that was responsible for the attack. They were in a firefight with U.S. troops and Nigerien troops for several hours. That's something new. This is something that others have been speculating on, but General Dunford confirmed it today. It was an ISIS-affiliated group.

SIEGEL: What did he present in the way of a timeline of what happened?

BOWMAN: Well, this went on for a couple of days. It started on October 4. It was a reconnaissance patrol with U.S. soldiers, 12 U.S. soldiers, part of a Green Beret team and dozens of Nigerien troops. They went to a village and spent some time there. And it was on the way back that they came under attack by this force of dozens of ISIS-affiliated folks. They had small arms. They had machine guns. They had rocket-propelled grenades.

And it was interesting that apparently this went on for an hour before the Americans called for assistance. That's something new. And they sent an American drone fairly quickly, which was taking video of this incident. They - also was armed. There was nothing fired. And then about a half hour later, a French Mirage jet showed up and some French helicopters. They also did not fire. And it seemed like this was coming to an end.

And then it took a couple of days before they could recover the body of La David Johnson. That was - he was recovered by Nigerien troops. And also, five Nigerien troops, by the way, were killed in this firefight.

SIEGEL: Now, as I mentioned earlier, General Dunford also admitted that there are many things that aren't known. In fact, let's listen to what he said about that.

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DUNFORD: The questions include, did the mission of U.S. forces change during the operation? Did our forces have adequate intelligence, equipment and training? Was their pre-mission assessment of the threat in the area accurate? Did U.S. - how did U.S. forces become separated during the engagement, specifically Sergeant Johnson? And why did it take time to find and recover Sergeant Johnson?

SIEGEL: And, Tom, as you said, he's referring to Sergeant La David Johnson, the Army mechanic who was separated from the team during the attack. Who actually is doing this investigation?

BOWMAN: Well, it's a general. It's a two-star general from Africa Command that's leading this investigation. I know he's talking to folks as we speak. And we have no indication when it's going to wrap up. One person at the Pentagon estimated it would take maybe a month more. But, you know, the general raised all these good questions. And Africa Command, for some time they've been complaining about the lack of equipment, the lack of drones, the lack of other things they need. And that's something, again, they've been talking about for quite some time.

SIEGEL: NPR's Tom Bowman at the Pentagon. Thank you, Tom.

BOWMAN: You're welcome, Robert.

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