so there is a drug addiction that his family now said that he s been suffering. so all of that led him so such a dark place that he felt he had to commit this crime. we ll wait for the hearing later today, boris. just an odd story. we appreciate you walking us through that. also developing at this hour, a french air strike has killed a top isis leader in africa who is believed to be the mastermind of a 2017 ambush that killed four u.s. troops in niger. alex marquardt is live at the pentagon with details. and alex, this terrorist is someone that the united states had also been chasing for several years? yeah. someone who had a $5 million bounty on his head, boris. this is a french drone strike. the french lead many of the counter-terrorism operations against al qaeda and isis in northern africa. they took out last month their leader of what is known as isis-gs. isis in the greater sahara. another affiliate in the way we
us are in a sense the premium of the insurance. so we are being trampled by the americans are actually accepting it, so i m not convinced that the europeans are going to change their mind. they are still in a state of denial. a state of denial. investor, stay with us, because a state of denial. investor, stay with us, because i a state of denial. investor, stay with us, because i want - a state of denial. investor, stay with us, because i want to - a state of denial. investor, stay with us, because i want to get i a state of denial. investor, stay - with us, because i want to get your thoughts on another stray, because as we sat in the headlines, the french government claims to have killed the leader of the so called islamic state. the french government claims to have killed the leader of the so called islamic state in the greater sahara. adnan abou walid al sahrawi who formed the splinter group known as isis gs in 2015 died in a drone strike that france says it launched in
something blind, there ought to have been some way to have some foresight about it. do we know anything about the way the pentagon and the fbi are pursuing the investigation into that part of it? right now they still believe this was some sort of an isis affiliate. one they re looking at is isis gs. they are trying to make a name for themselves and become an actual isis affiliate. it s that, of course, is still under investigation, who was behind this. one thing clear, is this was an isis sympathetic area. that means there were fighters there, villagers there who whether they believed in the isis ideology or doing what they have to do to survive remember, this is a very tribal area. so much of what these villagers may have been doing, it could have been nothing more than an all allegiance to the area and a
it in any way or do anything to skew the results. what we do know as you said in the intro, there were 12 american soldiers with a group of military from niger and they were conducting a patrol and they were ambushed by somewhere between 40 and 50 militants. i suspect what senator graham was talking about in that sound bite was the fact that the latest intelligence is pointing to a newer group called isis gs, when is isis in the greater sa hall and an afillant not recognized by core isis. but the leader bagdadi, but it has been acknowledged. they are not necessarily an official affiliate but they are trying to become one. so of course what senator graham was talking about there is the spread of terror into africa. but this is a problem for some time. we ve seen the french operating in mali for several years and
two for the best of my knowledge et, one for bush and obama. what say you, courtney? what s your number one story this week from the perch at the pentagon? i always feel like i m the out liar. it is niger and the continuing investigation into what happened a little over two weeks in niger. when about a dozen u.s. military soldiers came under ambush from militants, we think from this new isis affiliate, isis gs. there has been a lot of confusion both in the immediate aftermath of the attack and then in the ensuing days over what exactly happened. and it s become just a cringeworthy political debate this week that has taken an emotional toll on a lot of people who have been watching it. we saw it in the briefing room at the white house when general john kelly came out and gave this very personal, emotional