decapitate them. another guy says, we ll fight them with weapons. reporter: rudolph atallah spent years in the region for the u.s. military, and says the video was actually shot by the leader of the local militant group, who is named abu walid, who last year pledged allegiance in another video to isis. he is certainly one of the, i would say, vike hall individuals that the u.s. government is looking at. reporter: u.s. forces have been in niger for four years now, training local troops and waging a secret war against terrorists that also involves the cia. so, are they taking risks? they are. reporter: two senior u.s. intelligence officials tell abc news tonight that the mission went from reconnaissance to kill or capture, after the unit received information that a high value target had been located some eight hours away. they were ordered to move on his location, but found nothing. did the mission change? that is one of the questions that s being asked. it s a fair quest
a new front in the battle for the republican presidential nomination, nevada, which holds its caucuses this coming saturday. mitt romney is there along with newt gingrich and ron paul. instead of relishing his victory, a huge victory in the florida primary last night, romney and his team are now in full damage control mode after something romney said right here on cnn. our senior congressional correspondent dana bash is in las vegas with us. she s watching what s going on. what s going on with mitt romney, dana? reporter: well, wolf, i think we ve auld had something like this happen to us. you say something, it doesn t quite come out like you mean it, but when you re the front-runner in a presidential campaign, you can t afford to be the one who trips yourself up. making the morning show rounds, mitt romney inadvertently handed opponents an eight-word give on cnn i m not concerned about the very poor reporter: to be clear that made for a bumper sticker line was only
opposition force that they create, expecting the possibility of combat with federal troops. you point out this is not sort of a group of rag tag federal soldiers. they re training. we have seen individuals already act out like james von brunn, who last year pulled up to the u.s. holocaust museum and shot a security guard dead there. shot him in the chest there. now james von brunn is dead. died in prison. this was a lone actor. but how worried are department of homeland security officials about a larger militia group acting as a unit in doing something in. well, they worry about two things. when you tack about a group acting as a unit. almost all the groups concede themselves as operating in self-defense. they re waiting for a provocation from the federal government. but the problem with people who wait and wait and train and train is they re liable to