Here is part of a news article from Reuters news concerning the ambush. By reading what the French, who are also deployed there, there may be a screw up on behalf of a local commander failing to get more intelligence and putting a contingency plan into place. I am wondering if that patrol violated a cardinal rule of special forces that has been in place since Roger's Rangers in the Revolution war with England. That rule is never use the same route to return to base that you used to enter the hostile territory.
If it was failure by a field officer to plan the trip to the village, no way can Trump or the Pentagon be blamed for this failure.
RELH
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Under heavy fire, U.S. troops called in French fighter jets for air support, but the firefight was at such close quarters that the planes could not engage and were instead left circling overhead as a deterrant.
The version of events, as told by two Nigerien and two Western sources briefed on the incident, shines a light on Washington?s increasingly aggressive Special Forces-led counter-terrorism strategy in Africa and its risk of casualties.
Four U.S. soldiers died in the firefight, killed in a country where most Americans were unaware that their army is deployed but where Washington has steadily grown its presence. One soldier?s body was only recovered two days later.
At least four Nigeriens were also killed and, according to one Niger security source, militants seized four vehicles in the ambush. French helicopters, scrambled after the U.S. call for help, evacuated several soldiers wounded in the clash.
A diplomat with knowledge of the incident said French officials were frustrated by the U.S. troops? actions, saying they had acted on only limited intelligence and without contingency plans in place.
After initially offering only scant details of what happened in the Nigerien desert on Wednesday, the U.S. military?s Africa Command said on Friday the soldiers were in the area to establish relations with local leaders.
?It was not meant to be an engagement with the enemy,? African spokesman Colonel Mark Cheadle told reporters. ?The threats at the time were deemed to be unlikely, so there was no overhead armed air cover during the engagement.?
