On 3 October 2017, twelve American soldiers from the
3rd Special Forces Group accompanied thirty Nigerien soldiers from the Security and Intelligence Battalion (Bataillon Sécurité et de Renseignement or BSR) on a
civil reconnaissance mission to gather information near
Tongo Tongo in the Tillabéri region of Niger.
[6][25] In a video recorded before the ambush, young men can be seen on motorbikes armed with rifles and machine guns, repeating Islamist slogans, and discussing what they would do in the event they captured soldiers, with one of them saying that they would
decapitate them.
[26] The Americans were travelling in two technicals and one unarmed
Toyota Land Cruiser.
[7] A fourth vehicle had been provided to the Nigeriens by the
Central Intelligence Agency and had specialized surveillance equipment on board.
[7]
On 4 October, the soldiers met with local leaders, asking them for information about the whereabouts of an accomplice of Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi.
[27] The US soldiers were divided in two groups: one that would stay back and guard the vehicles and another that would attend the meeting.
[28] However, the meeting would drag on with the local leaders delaying the soldiers' departure by stalling and keeping them waiting.
[28] The group guarding the vehicles began to suspect that something was wrong when they witnessed two motorcycles race out of the village.
[13] At that moment, the unit believed that the local leader was complicit in an impending attack.
[13] After completion of the meeting, the soldiers were walking back to the rest of the unit and their unarmored pick-up trucks.
[28]
Ambush
While the soldiers were returning to base,
[29] about fifty armed ISGS militants believed to be led by
Dondou Chefou, a lieutenant in the terrorist group whom the US
code named "Naylor Road",
[7] began their assault against the soldiers.
[30] The militants, who had arrived with a dozen
technicals and about twenty motorcycles,
[10][11] had been armed with
light weapons, vehicle mounted weapons,
rocket-propelled grenades, and
mortars.
[13][28] Just two hundred yards away from the village, the force was allowed to pass through the ambush killzone before the ambush was sprung, leaving the first two vehicles of the element trapped. According to a Nigerien soldier who was wounded in the ambush, the militants had sent a large herd of cows towards the convoy and then attacked under the ensuing dust cloud. The team's leader, Captain Michael Perozeni, and a radio operator, Sgt. First Class Brent Bartels were both shot and wounded early into the ambush
[31][30] The Nigeriens who were not already dead or injured retreated.
[30] Under fire, the US soldiers used their vehicles for cover, at times driving them short distances. Staff Sergeant Bryan C. Black, the team's medic, was the first American to be killed. Armed only with rifles, they began returning fire, killing some of the militants.
[1][28]
Separated from the rest of the team, Sergeant La David Johnson was shot as many as 18 times by
M4 carbines and Soviet-made machine guns as he took cover in thick brush, fighting to the end after fleeing militants.
[32] La David Johnson was with two Nigerien soldiers who tried to get to a vehicle to escape, but were unable to do so.
[32]
Within minutes of the ambush, an unarmed US drone captured video of the firefight.
[33][34] Half an hour into the ambush, French
Mirage jets were ordered to respond to the ambush, and they arrived roughly two hours later.
[34][29][35][9] Even though there was now air support, the French pilots could not engage because they could not readily identify enemy forces in the firefight.
[36] Nevertheless, the presence of the fighter jets brought the engagement to an end.
[35] It was reported by CNN and
Le Monde that two French
Super Puma helicopters were brought in from Mali to evacuate those killed and injured,
[34][9][28] but
United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) spokesperson Robyn Mack said that
Berry Aviation, an
independent contractor, was "on alert during the incident and conducted casualty evacuation and transport for US and partner forces".
[37] Within three to four hours after the soldiers called in for support, a French special operations team arrived at the scene.
[5]
Post-ambush
One American soldier was slumped inside the team's pickup truck while two other Americans were on the ground, one of whom was clutching a
walkie-talkie.
[38] On 6 October, the body of La David Johnson was found by children tending cattle.
[38] His body was nearly a mile (1.6 km) away from the scene of the ambush.
[39] On 12 November, additional remains of La David Johnson were found at the site where his body was recovered.
[40]
