The top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee said Tuesday that the Trump administration has not been forthcoming enough about the ambush in Niger that resulted in the deaths of four American soldiers. “I think the administration has to be much more clear about our role in Niger and our role in other areas in Africa and other parts of the globe. They have to connect it to a strategy,” Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) told CNN. “I think the inattention to this issue is not acceptable.” The ambush, which took place earlier this month, was carried out by militants aligned with ISIS. “I haven’t heard anything about it, to tell you the truth, except that they were killed,” Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, told The Daily Beast later Tuesday. “We aren’t getting answers from the administration on a lot of issues.” Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said he does not have to “rely upon the administration at that level for that kind of information,” adding that his committee has “plenty of information” about the attack.
—Andrew Desiderio
