IS Video ‘Shows Deaths of US Soldiers in Niger Ambush’

The Islamic State (IS) group has published a video purporting to show an ambush in Niger in which four US soldiers were killed last October.

It is not clear why the release of the video – on an IS outlet on messaging app Telegram – was delayed until now.

The video consists mainly of raw footage, including images apparently filmed using a helmet camera belonging to one of the soldiers.

The video seems to suggest that the attack was carried out by IS militants.

It begins with still images showing an alleged pledge of allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi by members of the al-Qaeda-linked, Sahel-based group Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM).

The alleged pledge was reported last month by a number of analysts but it had not been promoted by IS outlets on Telegram.

The deaths later caused controversy when the widow of one of the soldiers said President Donald Trump had made her cry during a condolence phone call by suggesting her husband “knew what he signed up for”.

The video shows several armed militants walking and running in a desert area apparently heading for the ambush, reports BBC Monitoring.

It then shows footage that appears to have been filmed by one of the US soldiers. At one point the footage shows US soldiers seemingly exchanging fire with their assailants.

One soldier is then shown apparently dead.

Fighting continues until the other soldiers are killed, including apparently the one who was filming.