US Army Special Forces Troops killed in ambush on their patrol in Niger.

via Reuters

Five soldiers from Niger and three U.S. Army Special Forces troops were killed and two wounded in an ambush on a joint patrol in southwest Niger on Wednesday, according to Nigerien and U.S. officials.

The five Green Berets were attacked while on a routine patrol in an area known to have a presence of insurgents, including from al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and Islamic State, a U.S. official told Reuters.

It was unclear who fired on the U.S. and U.S.-backed forces, the official said. Those forces were not patrolling the area with any specific objective, such as a high-value target or rescuing a hostage, the official added.

Story here. 

I keep saying it but no one in SOCOM is listening.  Africa will eat our forces up. We want no part of that continent.  Why Special Forces in particular are so enamored with the idea of getting in the fight there is beyond me, but we will see horrors that will make an ISIS executioner recoil in terror.

No one will listen but that's the awful truth.

Next, I don't understand the fascination with these small unit actions.  No one has noticed but this is a lesson that was taught during the early days of our Invasion of Iraq.  Retaught during fighting in Afghanistan and is being shown in Syria to be bat shit crazy.

Warfare has evolved.  If you head out in anything less than platoon strength you stand virtually no chance.

What we're seeing here is what we will see in the continued fight against terrorist and God forbid a war against a peer power.

Small units will be found, fixed and destroyed.

These poor guys were dead as soon as they headed out the wire.  5 Special Forces advisors on a patrol with host nation troops?  They were probably clocked as soon as they left the wire.  I wouldn't be surprised if this was an actual attempt to capture those boys.

That's the only saving grace about this thing.  No one was captured so they can be put thru a living hell on earth.

Side note.  Everyone likes to talk about whether amphibious assault is still viable, whether airborne assault or air assault will work against a peer threat. Has anyone considered that maybe the "force multiplier" aspect of Special Forces is no longer valid?