One of the four U.S. soldiers killed in a suspected ISIS ambush in Niger last month was found with his arms bound, suggesting that he was captured and executed, according to a report.
Sgt. La David Johnson was killed outside the remote village of Tongo Tongo on Oct. 4 and circumstances surrounding his death have remained obscure.
Adamou Boubacar, a 23-year-old farmer, gave some of the most specific and chilling details yet on Friday.
"His two arms were tied behind his back," Boubacar told the Washington Post, adding that Johnson had an apparent bullet hole in his neck.
The farmer found Johnson face down in a bushy area roughly a mile from the ambush site on Oct. 6. That previously unknown detail could help explain why Johnson's body wasn't discovered for two days, while his fallen army comrades were found just hours after the suspected ISIS ambush. Tongo Tongo's village chief, Mounkaila Alassane, corroborated Boubacar's account.
"The back of his head was a mess," Alassane told The Post. "They took his shoes. He was wearing only socks." As American lawmakers voiced concern over the ambiguities surrounding the ambush, Jonhson's death was enveloped in political scandal after his widow accused President Trump of forgetting her fallen husband’s name during a condolence call.
Controversy over the mysterious ambush has swirled further by the fact that U.S. troops in Niger are only supposed to "advise and assist" local forces where the risk of enemy contact is minimal.