Reminder that some people do more than a sad face and hashtag campaign. RIP, heroesThree United States Army Special Forces were killed and two were wounded on Wednesday in an ambush in Niger while on a routine patrol with troops they were training from that nation in northwestern Africa, American 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 United States Africa Command in Stuttgart, Germany, said in an email.
A United States military official said that 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 Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, an affiliate of Al Qaeda, have conducted cross-border raids. Two other Green Berets were wounded, another military official said. Niger's troops were also believed to have suffered casualties, but details were not immediately known.
The deaths mark the first American casualties in a mission in which United States Special Forces have provided training and security assistance to the Nigerien armed forces, including support for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.
The military official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss continuing military operations, said American forces were rushing to the scene of the ambush, presumably to evacuate American and Nigerien casualties, and possibly to hunt down the attackers.