在尼日尔被杀美军士兵军装被剥血迹斑斑

A Nigerien man who says he found three of the four U.S. soldiers killed in Niger last month says the bodies were bloodied and stripped of their uniforms.

Adamou Boubacar told VOA's French to Africa service that he was the first to discover the bodies after the October 4 battle between U.S. special forces and the jihadist militants who ambushed them in the western Nigerien village of Tongo Tongo.

Boubacar, a resident of Tongo Tongo, said he was searching for his wife and children in nearby fields.

"When I came out of the village, I saw the bodies of the three white American soldiers. There was a lot of blood; you cannot imagine," he told the VOA Afrique program.

He says he found two soldiers in a vehicle and the other on the ground.

Asked whether the American soldiers were wearing their combat gear, Boubacar said one was naked and the others were in their underwear. He said all their weapons and equipment had been taken.

VOA asked the Pentagon on Friday to confirm the details. A Pentagon spokeswoman told VOA that an investigation is under way and that there would be no comment until all the facts have been gathered.

The U.S. military has identified the three soldiers found together on October 4 as Staff Sgt. Dustin Wright, 29, Staff Sgt. Bryan Black, 35, and Staff Sgt. Jeremiah Johnson, 39.

As for the fourth American soldier — Sgt. La David Johnson, 25, who was found two days later — Boubacar said it was children who discovered his body. "There must be at least two kilometers between where his body was found and the place where the attack took place," he said.