WASHINGTON -- Three U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers were killed and two were wounded Wednesday in an ambush in Niger while on a routine patrol with troops they were training, U.S. military officials said.
"We can confirm reports that a joint U.S. and Nigerien patrol came under hostile fire in southwest Niger," Lt. Cmdr. Anthony Falvo, a spokesman for the U.S. Africa Command in Stuttgart, Germany, said in an email.
A U.S. military official said three Army Green Berets were killed in the attack, which took place 120 miles north of Niamey, the capital of Niger, near the border with Mali, where militants with al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, an affiliate of al-Qaida, have conducted cross-border raids. Two other Green Berets were wounded, another military official said. Niger's troops also were believed to have suffered casualties, but details were not immediately known.
The deaths mark the first American casualties under hostile fire in a mission in which U.S. special operations forces have provided training and security assistance to the Nigerien armed forces, including support for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. A special operations soldier died in a vehicle accident in Niger in February.
The military officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss continuing military operations, said U.S. forces were rushing to the scene of the ambush, presumably to evacuate American and Nigerien casualties, and possibly to hunt down the attackers.
President Donald Trump was briefed on the deaths, said Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House spokesman.
A Section on 10/05/2017