CRUEL

ISIS Posts Video of Niger Ambush That Killed 4 U.S. Soldiers

Footage apparently comes from victims’ helmet cameras.

ISIS has posted a disturbing video apparently taken from the helmet cameras of some of the four U.S. soldiers who were ambushed and killed in Niger last year. The attack, in early October, claimed the lives of Staff Sgt. Bryan Black, 35; Staff Sgt. Jeremiah Johnson, 39; Sgt. La David Johnson, 25; and Staff Sgt. Dustin Wright, 29. The nine-minute video appears to be made up of footage taken from multiple helmet cameras on the U.S. soldiers who died in Tongo Tongo, Niger, following an ambush by local fighters associated with ISIS, who attacked a group of a dozen U.S. Special Forces and an additional 50 or so Nigerien soldiers with small-arms fire, rocket-propelled grenades, and machine guns. The four Americans who were killed are believed to have become separated from their comrades during the firefight, which, The Daily Beast previously reported, lasted several hours. The killings sparked a political row after the pregnant widow of La David Johnson said that in a condolence phone call, Donald Trump told her that her husband “knew what he signed up for” and struggled to remember his name—Trump has disputed her account of the call.