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US Military Probes Twitter Post Claiming to Show US Troops Killed in Niger

by Carla Babb

   PENTAGON --

   The U.S. military is reviewing images posted on the social media site
   Twitter that claim to show dead American soldiers killed during an
   ambush in Niger last year.
   U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) said Wednesday it is "aware of the post
   on Twitter" and is reviewing it to determine "the veracity of the tweet
   and the assertions that there is an associated video."
   The post says the images are from a more than 10-minute-long video
   broadcast by an affiliate of the Islamic State in Mali. The post adds
   that the video shows a wounded American soldier and the bodies of the
   three other U.S. soldiers who were killed in the October 4 ambush.
   The militant attack near the village of Tongo Tongo killed four
   American soldiers, four Nigerian soldiers and a Nigerian interpreter.

   A formal investigation into the deadly ambush in Niger is expected to
   be completed by the end of this month.
   A group of 12 members of a U.S. Special Operations Task Force
   accompanied 30 Nigerian forces on a reconnaissance mission from the
   capital city of Niamey to an area near Tongo Tongo.
   Members of the team had just completed a meeting with local leaders and
   were walking back to their vehicles when they were attacked, U.S.
   officials told VOA.
   Some 1,300 U.S. military personnel work in the Lake Chad Basin --
   Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad -- to help strengthen local
   militaries and counter Boko Haram, al-Qaida, IS and other extremist
   groups.

   Carla is VOA's Pentagon correspondent covering defense and
   international security issues. Her datelines include Ukraine, Turkey,
   Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq and Korea.