Villagers may have helped ISIS set up its ambush of Green Beret patrol in Niger

Voice of America:

A local official and an analyst say residents of the Niger village where four U.S. soldiers were killed this month may have delayed the soldiers while an ambush was set up and helped to lead the victims into a deadly trap.

"The attackers, the bandits, the terrorists have never lacked accomplices among local populations," said Almou Hassane, mayor of Tongo-Tongo where the attack took place, in what is believed to be his first interview with a Western news organization.

The village chief in Tongo-Tongo, Mounkaila Alassane, has been arrested since the attack, Hassane said, lending credibility to the suspicion of local involvement. He is in government custody, according to several officials.

His arrest was also confirmed by Karimou Soumana, a representative of the Tillaberi region, during a National Assembly debate to extend the state of emergency in that part of Niger.

Speaking by telephone to VOA's French-to-Africa service, Mayor Hassane said the dead Americans were part of a patrol made up of eight U.S. and about 20 Nigerien special forces, which arrived in pickup trucks at the village near the Mali border the evening before the attack.
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Moussa Askar, director of the newspaper l'Evènement in the capital, Niamey, said the soldiers were in the area to track down an accomplice of Abu Adnan al-Sahraoui, a former member of the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), who joined the Islamic State terror group in the Sahara Desert.

Aksar, a specialist on terrorism in the Sahel region of Africa, told VOA that members of the patrol questioned residents of the village, who dragged out the discussions, possibly giving the attackers time to organize an ambush.
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While the soldiers were still in the village, a fake terror attack was staged nearby, according to Aksar and local sources. The soldiers rushed to the scene, where about 50 or more assailants with vehicles and motorcycles opened fire with Kalashnikovs and heavy weapons.

Four Nigerien soldiers and three Americans were killed on the spot. The body of the fourth American soldier was found 48 hours later, about a mile away from the initial site, CNN reported.

Rhissa Ag Boula, a high-ranking government official and a former Tuareg rebel chief in Niger, told VOA that the fourth soldier, La David Johnson, had remained at the front line while the others retreated under heavy fire.
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There is more.

This is the most detailed description of what happened that I have seen so far.  Treachery by the villagers in luring the force into a trap needs to be dealt with by local officials.  The death of the US and Nigerian troops may have uncovered intelligence about the enemy that had been previously unavailable.