Incredible from the white house team. it also has shades of the raid that killed osama bin laden. reporter: yeah, stunning amount of detail from officials who over the last 24 hours have given more and more detail about some of those really tense moments in the situation room as the president monitored this raid in real time. he was joined by his vice president and other national security officials. they described moments filled with anxiety when they watched the helicopter on the ground malfunctioning. we learned that was destroyed by u.s. special forces to moments of levity when they saw children coming from coming safely outside from the first floor of the building. remember, the u.s. the isis target lived on the third floor above families and so that was the reason why as we heard jomana say, the president opted for a special forces mission.
Recognized by spain or by the international community. we ll keep you up to date on this developing story. the u.s. footprint in west africa is larger than even some u.s. members of congress knew, and it could get bigger as we learn more about the special forces mission in niger that ended the lives of four u.s. soldiers, we re also learning that the ambushed group was among 26 or 27 missions operating in the area. in a press conference yesterday, joint staff director lieutenant general mckenzie also told reporters that one additional team was involved in the niger attack. congress members who emerged from the two closed briefings on the matter said that americans should expect to see even more u.s. troops deployed to africa. now, in the more than three years since isis seized control of theaticy city of mosul and declared a ccaliphate, they ve
This isn t that dissimilar, where we had u.s. forces very much extended, out on the frontiers, did they have the right support? i think it will be very interesting in the days to report. so explain really quickly, why were they there? why would they have been in such a remote region? in this area, it s been a part of the counter terrorism initiative. it was to train and equip forces to do essentially counter terrorism and train up these forces, that s a special forces mission, if you look back the traditional special force mission is to build these indigenous force and go after threats way wide. it s sound like they were a part of a patrol working with niger s forces, i heard estimate i estimates up to 50 people
That s not going to be as it were on the can of this military package, because they don t want to upset turkey, their very sensitive ally. they re very dubious about those kurds in northern syria, consider them allies to another kurdish group they think are terrorists. this special forces mission, not a game changer. a substantial change in barack obama s policy, but also potentially the tip of an iceberg, which could grow if the u.s. sees traction in these moderate syrian arabs in assisting them, if they actually see some kind of yield on the back, fredricka. and nick, is there any resistance among the kurds, that they ll be receiving this kind of u.s. troop assistance or is it welcomed overall. they brought a message from the kurds, is they re happy fighting, doing the ground fight by themselves, for land they consider to be their future independent homeland, that they call rejaffea. that doesn t mean they don t welcome the air strikes or don t
Civilians and interestingly isis fighters accused by their own group of spying. missing, however, were the kurdish captives they were originally sent in to rescue. joining me now is republican congressman adam kinsinger served in iraq and afghanistan as a pilot. congressman, thanks very much for being here. yeah, thanks. so you have an elite delta force special operator unfortunately killed in this raid. they went into a fire fight inside a walled compound, granted their beginning role was advise and assist but when kurdish partners came under attack they went right into fire fight. how is that not a combat role? i think it is vaguely a combat role. special forces, special operators and delta, you don t hear a lot about them but these are among the best of the best. these are heroes. they re great at what they do. but when you think of a special forces mission or special operations missions, we think about direct action, capture or kill mission. these guys their bread and butte