NIAMEY, Niger — The four US soldiers killed last month in an ambush were helping track and fight Islamist militants along the Mali-Niger border in the hours before their death, according to the nation’s defense minister and a wounded Nigerien soldier who survived the attack.
The accounts raise questions about the Pentagon’s assertions that the American and Nigerien troops were on a low-risk reconnaissance mission and that chances of contact with militants were unlikely. They were, instead, operating in a dangerous and complex battle zone, where attacks happen frequently. US troops are in Niger to train and advise, military officials have said, not to engage in combat missions.
The Pentagon has said it is investigating whether the soldiers’ stated mission had changed.
Questions still unanswered: Was the team operating on faulty intelligence? Or was the mission changed at the last minute?
The details suggest revenge may have been a motive for the militants — who were part of a relatively new Islamic State affiliate, the Pentagon suspects — in their attack on 11 US soldiers and 30 Nigerien troops.
In a 90-minute phone interview, the wounded Nigerien soldier described the surprise assault on Oct. 4 after they left the border village of Tongo Tongo. Five Nigerien soldiers also died.
The US troops, who included elite Green Berets, wound up taking the lead in the intense firefight.
Some Nigerien soldiers fled, even as the Americans ordered them to stay on and fight.
‘‘The Americans had more sophisticated weapons and so we let them confront the enemy while we took cover,’’ said Sergenat Abdou Kané, 28, who was shot in the leg and who spoke from the town of Agadez in central Niger. ‘‘The Americans were telling us not to flee but to go back and fight the enemy. But the enemy was following us and shooting at us.’’
The insurgents, he said, far outnumbered the US-Nigerien team and had much greater firepower, including pickup trucks mounted with heavy machine guns.
The ambush, by masked and turban-wearing fighters, was so well-planned they had sent a large herd of cows toward the team, then attacked under cover of the dust raised by the cattle.
In the chaos, he added, several of the Americans were separated from the main group, as the team split up to avoid the militants. Air support to help the besieged team and evacuate the wounded took an hour or more to arrive.
A person at the military hospital in the capital, where Kané was treated for his injury, provided his number to The Washington Post.
The accounts suggest US troops may have gone beyond the scope of their mission in Niger, and they raise a question as to whether they had the required authorization to capture or kill militants. At the very least, the accounts underscore the perils faced by US Special Forces and other American troops even in their capacities as trainers and advisers.
‘‘We tried our best, but the enemy had everything they needed to beat us,’’ Kané said.
