ISIS Affiliate Claims Deadly Attack on U.S. Troops in Niger

A U.S. Army carry team transfers the remains of Army Staff Sgt. Dustin Wright of Lyons, Georgia, at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, U.S. on Oct. 5, 2017. Aaron J. Jenne/U.S. Air Force/Handout via Reuters

NOUAKCHOTT–The leader of ISIS’s affiliate in West Africa has claimed responsibility for an attack that killed four U.S. special forces and four soldiers from Niger in October, Mauritania’s independent Nouakchott News Agency (ANI) reported on Saturday.

The troops were killed when their joint patrol was attacked near the village of Tongo Tongo, on the Mali-Niger border, on Oct. 4 by dozens of militants armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.