A fourth Green Beret has been found dead in the firefight with Islamic extremists that occurred in southwest Niger Wednesday.
Several U.S. officials told CNN that in addition to the three Green Berets killed in the fight and two others wounded, the body of a fourth Green Beret has been recovered.
The name of the fourth Green Beret has not yet been released, due to next of kin notification procedures, but the Pentagon released the names of the other three killed Friday.
“We have updated information related to the attack on U.S. and Nigerien forces that occurred on October 4th in southwest Niger,” U.S. Africa Command said in a statement Friday. “The body of another U.S. Service Member has been recovered from the area of attack, bringing the number of U.S. Service Members killed in this attack to four.”
“Our thoughts and prayers are on the families of the deceased,” the statement continued. “We will share more information as it becomes available related to this attack.”
A group of up to 50 Islamic State-affiliated fighters attacked a joint patrol of U.S. and Nigerian forces Wednesday. The team of 12 U.S. service members were traveling in unarmed pick-up trucks when ISIS-affiliated fighters began attacking the team with small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades. The Green Berets quickly jumped out of the trucks and started firing back at the fighters. At some point, the fourth Green Beret became separated from his team and was later found dead. U.S. officials don’t believe that he was ever captured by the enemy.
A total of five Nigerian troops were also killed in the attack.
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