The deaths of three U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers in Niger have brought American operations in the country under new scrutiny. At the same time, the Pentagon has been especially tight-lipped about the nature of the incident, despite a wealth of publicly available information, calling into question the exact nature of the “advise and assist” mission in the West African country.
On Oct. 4, 2017, a still unknown group attacked a patrol of both American special operators and Nigerien security forces in the vicinity of the village of Tongo Tongo, which is less than 20 miles due south of the border with Mali. The next day, U.S. Africa Command, which oversees all U.S. military missions on the continent, confirmed that three Americans were dead, two were wounded, and that “one partner nation member” had died, but little else.“We're – they're ongoing operations and we're gonna – no more details right now,” Dana White, the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson, said during a press briefing on Oct. 5, 2017, which became a common refrain to questions about the attack. “I'm gonna have to just tell you, ongoing operations, we're not prepared to go in any details on them right now.”
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/14923/what-you-need-to-know-about-why-u-s-special-operations-forces-are-in-niger
