28 0

Posted by  in Uncategorized

canada goose clearance sale fear and questions remain canada goose clearance sale

canada goose deals By Arwa Damon and Brent Swails (CNN) canada goose deals

buy canada goose jacket TONGO TONGO, Niger (CNN) The convoy’s progress is painstaking, the tracks it follows barely defined, at times though open terrain, at times cheap canada goose uk through the thick wooded areas that worry the soldiers most. It makes ideal cover for an ambush, so they dismount and advance on foot before calling their vehicles forward. buy canada goose jacket

Canada Goose Outlet We bump our way past villagers on donkeys, herds of camels and goats, and canada goose coats on sale long stretches where there is no one in sight. There is a harsh and rugged Canada Goose Parka beauty to the landscape in this volatile region canada goose clearance of the Sahel, where outside of the major cities, people survive largely on what nature provides. Canada Goose Outlet

Canada Goose online Bonds here are strongest along tribal and familial lines, and the reach of the capital governments in Niamey and Bamako can’t possibly extend far enough to control all of this vast territory. Canada Goose online

canada goose coats The October 4th attack that killed four American soldiers, their translator and four Nigeriens has thrown this remote canada goose porous border region between Mali and Niger into the global spotlight, but for the Nigerien soldiers, the fight out here has been ongoing for years. They come under attack on a regular basis, and tell us that over the last two years the main threat has morphed from banditry to terrorism. canada goose coats

canada goose We headed out looking for answers to the many questions that continue to churn around canada goose clearance sale the attack near the village of Tongo Tongo. It’s here that the US military said the convoy stopped to replenish supplies and was then held up by elders. canada goose

Canada Goose Jackets US officials told CNN last week that it was “quite probable” that someone in the village tipped off the ISIS affiliated militants that US forces were in the village, canada goose store setting up the ambush 10 kilometers (6 miles) down the road. Canada Goose Jackets

At one point our vehicle gets stuck in the sand, while another refuses to start in Canada Goose Coats On Sale the extreme heat and a third gets a flat tire. It is all canada goose coats time ill spent in the broader ambush zone that puts us and the Canada Goose online soldiers on edge.

Canada Goose Parka Some four hours after we veer off the main road a wide dirt lane we reach the outskirts of Tongo Tongo. The soldiers again cheap Canada Goose dismount, fanning out into the dense vegetation that encircles about half the village. Canada Goose Parka

canada goose store The ground is littered with heavy caliber machine gun casings; no one can definitively tell us if they were canadian goose jacket fired by American, Nigerien or even enemy forces. But something definitely happened here it could be uk canada goose outlet where the first shots were fired, or perhaps the main ambush zone where besieged soldiers made their last stand. canada goose store

canada goose black friday sale Our escorts tell us we have ten minutes canada goose factory sale on scene. The village is small, maybe 30 or 40 single room mud homes in all. Two men weaving in the shade balk at our arrival and insist that they were not here the day of the attack. A woman we approach shakes her head nervously Canada Goose Online and quickly walks away. canada goose black friday sale

One man gestures as if he was shooting a gun and points towards the outskirts.

canada goose clearance We manage to track down the detained village chief’s older brother and uncle. It was the village chief who led the soldiers Canada Goose Outlet to Sgt. La David Johnson’s body, a day and a half after the attack and roughly one kilometer away from the main site. canada goose clearance

Both men swear on the Quran that they did not know the attackers. They say that the US Nigerien convoy never actually stopped in their village, but was merely driving past when shots were fired from the school building buy canada goose jacket cheap a single mud room on the outskirts, opposite the side that we approached from.

canada goose coats on sale They tell Canada Goose Jackets us they had never seen Americans come through here before, never heard gunshots and uk canada goose explosions. They are afraid and confused. canada goose coats on sale

They say that the villagers, terrified, hid inside their homes for hours until canada goose uk shop Nigerien soldiers came through and told them to come out.

canadian goose jacket Our escorts tell us it is time to leave, and buy canada goose jacket we hurry past the burnt remains of the classroom. If the attack started here, the bullet casings we saw earlier could have been from the convoy when it raced off, or from the guns of soldiers who tried to flank their assailants. canadian goose jacket

cheap Canada Goose As we speed away in a different direction, we drive over more canada goose uk outlet bullet casings along the tracks, raising yet more questions about how large the battle zone was, and where, if at all, soldiers were able to take cover. cheap Canada Goose

buy canada goose jacket cheap There are traces of burnt vegetation, consistent with witnesses’ reports that the militants started fires that acted as a smokescreen for French fighter jets who arrived on canada goose black friday sale the scene two hours after the Canada Goose UK ambush began. buy canada goose jacket cheap

Canada Goose sale But our Canada Goose sale time in Tongo Tongo is too short lived to yield many answers, and it’s clear just how complicated and murky the narrative and the https://www.canadagoose-coats.co.uk war canada goose uk black friday on terror in Niger has become Canada Goose sale.

Leave a comment

* required