US Niger ambush: Mali militia says it has American vehicle and weapons

The MSA-GATIA militia published a photo of the vehicle and the weapons

A militia in Mali says it has recovered weapons and a vehicle abandoned by US special forces during a deadly ambush in Niger last year, and is prepared to return them to the Americans.

The Tuareg rebel group says it seized the battered four-wheel-drive and two rifles during clashes with "bandits" on the Mali-Niger border.

Four members of the US special forces were killed in last year's raid.

An offshoot of the Islamic State (IS) group said it carried out the attack.

In a statement, the MSA-GATIA militia group said it captured the materiel from unidentified "armed bandits" on the Mali side of the border with Niger in fighting earlier this week and offered to return them through "legal means".

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A coalition of armed Tuareg rebels has frequently clashed with jihadist groups active in the area between Mali and Niger.

The US military says it is investigating the MSA-GATIA militia's claim.

Earlier this month, IS published a video purporting to show the deadly ambush, which took place last October.

The deaths in Niger's Tillaberi region became a major political row in the US when the widow of one of the soldiers, Army Sgt La David Johnson, said President Donald Trump had made her cry during a condolence phone call by suggesting her husband "knew what he signed up for".

La David Johnson, one of the US soldiers killed in the attack

The president later called a US congresswoman's account of the phone call "totally fabricated".

The US has about 800 troops in Niger. It says they are there to help train local forces and support counter-terrorism efforts.