Pentagon IDs fourth soldier killed in Niger attack

The Pentagon has identified a fourth soldier killed in an ambush in Niger earlier this week.

Sgt. La David Johnson was initially listed as missing following the Wednesday ambush. His body was recovered by U.S. personnel on Friday, the Pentagon said. 

Johnson, 25, of Miami Gardens, Fla., was assigned to the 3rd Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg, N.C. 

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Johnson was among about a dozen U.S. soldiers conducting a joint patrol with about 40 Nigerien soldiers on Wednesday, when they came under attack. The ambush is suspected to have been carried out by militants tied to the Islamic State.

Four Nigerien soldiers were killed and eight were wounded, while two other U.S. soldiers were wounded in the attack. 

The three other U.S. soldiers killed were identified on Friday as Staff Sgts. Bryan Black, 35, of Puyallup, Wash.; Jeremiah Johnson, 39, of Springboro, Ohio; and Dustin Wright, 29, of Lyons, Ga.

All four were assigned to the 3rd Special Forces Group, a Green Beret unit. 

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the ambush, though multiple extremist groups operate in the region, including al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which is in Mali, and Boko Haram, an ISIS affiliate based in Nigeria.