Second Special Operations team was on ground near Niger ambush (Report)

The Pentagon confirmed Thursday that a second U.S. Special Operations team was in the area when a Special Forces team was ambushed in Niger earlier this month.

“There are other teams that operate in Niger,” Lt. Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie, Jr., director of the Joint Staff, told reporters. “There was one that had something to do with this operation but I am not going to be able to give you any more specific details about what happened.”

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joe Dunford, said earlier this week that the 12-man Special Forces team was ambushed by 50 heavily armed ISIS-affiliated fighters while conducting a “reconnaissance mission.”

Four U.S. soldiers died in the fighting, while two others were wounded. One of the fallen soldiers, Sgt. La David Johnson, 25, was unaccounted for two days after the ambush before his body was discovered by allied Nigerien forces.

On…