Murdered US soldiers seen in shocking ISIS video were ill-equipped for Niger ambush - traveling in lightly armored pick-up trucks with barely enough weapons - as they were diverted from low risk patrol to hunt terrorist

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The release of shocking video showing the death of three American soldiers in the deserts of west Africa is raising more questions about just what US forces are doing in the region.

ISIS released the nine-minute, 17-second video online on Sunday taken mainly from the helmetcams of the slain soldiers.

The soldiers, Staff Sergeant Bryan Black, 35, Staff Sergeant Jeremiah Johnson, 39, and Staff Sergeant Dustin Wright, 29, died near Tongo Tongo in western Niger on October 4. 

A fourth soldier Sergeant La David Johnson, 25, was also killed after he got separated from the rest of the unit.

US Army Special Forces Staff Sergeant Jeremiah Johnson (left), Staff Sergeant Bryan Black (second left) and Staff Sergeant Dustin Wright (second right) died near Tongo Tongo in western Niger on October 4. A fourth soldier, Sergeant La David Johnson (right), was also killed after he got separated from the rest of the unit

The four men were killed in Tongo Tongo, Niger, which is just north of the country's capital Niamey

Five Nigerien troops, working alongside the Americans, also died, along with 21 terrorists.

It was the largest combat loss of American lives in Africa since the infamous Black Hawk Down incident in Somalia in 1993, when 19 American troops died.

Even lawmakers knew nothing of the action in Niger, having been told that troops there were just training and advising local troops, The New York Times reported.

'I didn't know there was 1,000 troops in Niger,' Sen Lindsey Graham, the chairman of the Senate's subcommittee on Armed Service Personnel, complained shortly after the attack.

'This is an endless war without boundaries, no limitation on time or geography,' Graham, a hawk on defense matters, added. 'We don't know exactly where we're at in the world militarily and what we're doing.'

Close relatives of the men killed also had no idea they were in danger. 

Wright had told his grandmother that he was in Africa 'doing paperwork,' the Times reported.

'You're talking to people who didn't even know how to pronounce Niger. We had to look it up on the map to see exactly where it happened,' Wright's aunt Ginger Russell said.

The helmet cam video begins with the Americans pinned down under gunfire next to a tactical truck (pictured) and a Toyota Land Cruiser

Soldiers take cover by the Land Cruiser (far left) and the tactical truck (door on right edge) as they were ambushed by ISIS militants

As the clip continues, ISIS militants fire bullets as they surround the soldiers, a group made of 11 Americans and 30 Nigeriens. Pictured above, the tactical vehicle is seen in the background from next to the Land Cruiser

The US soldiers use the Land Cruiser for cover as they drive it toward colored smoke that has been deployed to obscure their retreat and signal air support

The killings led to a political fight after La David Johnson's widow Myeshia accused President Donald Trump of telling her her husband 'knew what he signed up for' when he joined the Army. 

Trump denied he had said it but Florida Rep. Frederica Wilson, who was with Myeshia Johnson at the time insisted it was true. That led to White House Chief of Staff John Kelly slamming Wilson as 'an empty barrel' making noise about nothing. 

The Times had seen the video in advance of it appearing online. The paper said it had bought it from a news agency in Mauritania and said that agency had not paid ISIS for it.

According to the Times, the soldiers were part of Team 3212, made up of 11 Americans and 30 Nigeriens, who had were on 'a routine, low-risk patrol with little chance of encountering the enemy.'

But on October 3, American forces discovered from a cell phone beep the likely whereabouts of Doundoun Cheffou, a suspected local terrorist leader who was believed to have been responsible for the kidnapping of American aid worker, Jeffrey Woodke, a year earlier.

The Americans rushed to get surveillance aircraft to the spot where the beep had come from and ordered an assault team from Arlit, nearly 400 miles away.

'The scramble to pull together a raid and hunt down Mr. Cheffou upended what had been a fairly uneventful day for the four American sergeants already out on patrol,' the Times reported.

They had been assigned to visit villages around their base of Ouallam, north of the country's capital Niamey, to meet locals as part of a charm offensive in the area aimed at dissuading locals from backing terror groups.

Three of the soldiers make their final stand around an unarmored Toyota Land Cruiser as the colored smoke rises

One soldier signals for the driver of the Land Cruiser to get down as he fires across the hood

So when the soldiers were redeployed to join hunt for Cheffou they were ill-equipped in lightly armored pick-up trucks and an SUV, mainly carrying M4 carbines.

'For visiting local villages in an area that was supposed to have little militant presence, the team's weapons and vehicles made sense. But if attacked by a larger, more aggressive force, Team 3212's members would barely have enough rifles and machine guns to defend themselves,' the Times said.

But soldiers in the open-bedded trucks had virtually no protection against enemy fire, and those in the SUV were had little room to maneuver inside the vehicle, reducing their ability to fire back.

And making matters worse, weather problems in Arlit were preventing the aircraft taking off and American spies believed that Cheffou was on the move and was no longer where cellphone beep had pinpointed him.

But the team that included Black, Johnson, Johnson and Wright was still moving to the area to back up a raid that had been canceled. 

Commanders decided not to call them back because they might be able to pick up scraps of information about Cheffou's movements from the location.

The team continued to head north towards the dangerous border with Mali, where terror groups flourished, but they were without air support and a group of French forces that had been assigned to support were stood down, leaving the team unprotected.

Myeshia Johnson kisses her husband La David Johnson's casket at his funeral in Hollywood, Florida, on October 21. She made headlines by feuding with Trump after his death 

They slept overnight in sleeping bags and early the next morning found Cheffou's abandoned camp. 

A motorcycle, foodstuff and spent ammo shells were still there and motorcycle tracks showed which way the terror leader's men had gone.

The team collected the evidence and started the 110-mile journey back to base, but stopped in the first village they arrived at, Tongo Tongo, to get water.

'It is unclear who approved the pit stop. But whatever the reason, the delay - in a location close to Mr. Cheffou's campsite - made the team more vulnerable with each passing moment in unfamiliar territory. The team had been out for more than a day, pushing through the desert in easy-to-spot vehicles, giving the militants and their web of spotters time to plan an ambush,' the Times reported.

Survivors believe a village leader in Tongo Tongo deliberately tried to keep the soldiers there to give Cheffou's men time to plan the attack. The man was later arrested and his phone contained numbers for known terrorists including Cheffou.

When the soldiers left to continue their journey around 11.30 am, they soon came under machine gun attack. It split up, leaving Black, Wright and Jeremiah Johnson behind.

They were ambushed just outside the village. The video released by ISIS shows two of the soldiers running alongside their Toyota Land Cruiser while the third drives it. 

An honor guard carries the coffin of Army Sergeant La David Johnson, who was among four special forces soldiers killed in Niger, at a graveside service in Hollywood, Florida, October 21

They fired colored smoke grenades to provide some cover and to give any friendly aircraft a better idea of their position.

But they were cornered by some 50 ISIS fighters and the video showed one man go down and then gruesome close-ups of the mutilated bodies of the men.

The Times said the video appeared to give the lie to Pentagon claims that the slain soldiers were not left behind by their comrades.

'At least two of the dead American soldiers were shown stripped of their equipment and photographed by the Islamic State militants at close range. For a period of time, American troops were in the hands of their enemy.'

Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Joseph Dunford said at the time that the soldiers did not request support for an hour after the fighting started and French forces arrived an hour after that.

The bodies were recovered later that night when helicopters finally arrived from Arlit. 

La David Johnson's body was recovered two days later, a mile from the spot of the ambush.

The Pentagon has yet to give a full account of what happened outside Tongo Tongo. CBS News said the long-awaited report is expected to be released this week.

US Africa Command condemned the release of the ISIS video, saying it 'demonstrates the depravity of the enemy we are fighting'.