be re-thought. but i wanted to mention those numbers because the local people, most of them muslims, arabs and afghans are fighting extremists. that s the reality. overwhelmingly it is local forces fighting and dying. i m glad you said that. we have republican senator lindsey graham, who is a big supporter of the president. he went as far to say this is a high risk strategy regarding afghanistan that would, quote, pave the way toward a second 9/11. he chooses his words carefully. you cannot think of a more ominous warning from him. and then listen to this. this is from america s top general two weeks ago. leaving afghanistan not only would create instability in south asia, but in my judgment would give terrorist groups the space within which to plan and conduct operations against the american people, homeland and
us military says the attackers may have been hit by someone in the village, a group of 15 surgeons that ambush that patrol which had been on an intelligence gathering mission. donald trump said the us will continue to fight extremists in that region. a tough business, a tough war but we are winning it and we will continue winning it. us troops have been conducting operations in niger over the past two decades, part of a wider message over western africa. their role is to train and advise but the us military role in fighting extremists in western africa may be set up. back home, jeff flake and bob corker announce their plans to not seek resignation. how will this affect the balance of power in the midterm elections?
oversight and just what the congress knows. we have troops throughout the world fighting extremists that wish us harm, yet we are working off an old con grengsgestioress authorization that was put in force in 01. just the examination of what we re doing around the world, what the directors are, what freedoms our troops have on the ground. this is going to begin a bigger debate that really was already underway. reporter: hallie, just to clarify, the notifications sent to congress about the troops going to niger have been clear. and senator corker said congress has been brought up to speed. you can read that in a variety of congressional notifications. whether or not it had risen to the level inside the senate armed services committee or the house of arms committee where they were aware of the kind of risks these troops were exposed to, that is a different question. but the idea there were u.s. troops all throughout africa over 6,000, congress has been well briefed on that.
cnn.com/amanpour. we want to go to ethiopia where the u.s. president will be wrapping up a trip that also took him to his father s homeland kenya. in a few hours, barack obama will be speaking before the african union, it is the very first time a u.s. president has addressed the african union. they talked about the war in neighboring south sudan. in a joint news conference, mr. obama was blunt in his assessment of the governor party s treatment of the press but also praised ethiopia for efforts in fighting extremists like al shabab. and during that news conference the u.s. president slammed 2016 candidate over comments he made over the weekend. jim acosta has more. reporter: in his first real