The U.S. military, still looking for answers on what happened in a deadly Oct. 4 ISIS-affiliated ambush in Niger, is dispatching a Pentagon team to conduct a "review of the facts," NBC News reported.
Officials are not calling the inquiry into the deaths of four soldiers an official investigation, the outlet reported.
"We need to collect some very basic raw facts," one unnamed defense official told NBC News.
One defense official told NBC News the Pentagon's Africa Command team is looking to determine where U.S. forces were when the attack occurred, if they had adequate personal protective equipment, if they were prepared for the attack, and if there was adequate intelligence in advance of the mission, and an adequate response to the attack.
The official said the level of confusion during and after the mission was "tremendous." The fourth soldier's body was not found until nearly two days after the ambush.
According to NBC News, Pentagon officials say operations in the region have been "tightened up" and there has been an operational "pause" while the Pentagon team assesses the situation.
U.S. officials say the ambush was likely carried out by an ISIS affiliate called ISIS in the Greater Sahara — one of several ISIS affiliates in the region, NBC News reported.
The attack "has not been claimed by a terrorist group, but a group claiming association with ISIS, ISIS in the Greater Sahara, is likely responsible," one U.S. official told NBC News.
If ISIS-GS carried out the attack, it would be the group's first against American forces. In the past, they have carried out attacks on French counterterrorism forces, NBC News noted.
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