U.S. lawmakers are demanding that the Donald Trump administration provide answers over the deaths of four special forces in Niger earlier this month.
The four Green Berets were ambushed shortly after a meeting with local elders near the Mali border.
Reports indicate that the group of US Green Berets accompanying Nigerian forces had just completed a meeting with local villagers and were walking back to join their convoy of vehicles. They were ambushed by a group of around 50 heavily militants carrying small arms, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.
Members of Congress are demanding answers, with Senator John McCain a former prisoner of war in Vietnam and the current Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee responsible for overseeing the military saying information on the attack has effectively been blocked.
The incident has focused attention on the US operation there, with around 800 troops deployed in the African country.
Questions are now being raised about whether those troops and others operating covertly in Africa have proper aerial support for evacuations in what has become the deadliest assault on US combat troops since President Trump took office.
US Defense Secretary General James Mattis says they are investigating, saying “We’re not complacent, we’re going to do better.”
The incident has also put President Donald Trump under scrutiny following remarks he made to a widow of one of the slain soldiers.
Trump is reported to have said the soldier “knew what he signed up for.”
The White House has however denied that the President behaved with insensitivity in that call.
