Niger : America’s Secret Wars

Four US special forces soldiers embedded with a larger unit of Nigerien troop died in an ambush earlier this month in western Niger. They were attacked by up to 50 militants armed with truck-mounted heavy machine guns as they left a meeting with local community leaders a few dozen kilometres from the remote town of Tongo Tongo. .

The Associated Press and The New York Times both reported that the U.S. personnel involved were U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers and the 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) is presently regionally aligned to provide support to U.S. Africa Command.Several Nigeriens were also killed and were reportedly part of the specialized Bataillon Sécurité et Renseignement (BSR), or Security and Intelligence Battalion.

Reuters reported that the attackers were from al-Sahraoui’s group, which calls itself the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara. An equally likely culprit could be the much larger Jamaat Nosrat Al Islam wal Mouslimin — the "Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims"

The 800-strong US presence in Niger is little-known to most Americans. The Americans are in the process of building a second $100 million base in northern Niger.

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