Military members in Niger.
(Image credit: Issouf Sanogo/AFP/Getty Images)

Three U.S. Army special operations commandos were killed Wednesday after they were ambushed in southwest Niger, U.S. officials said.

Two others were wounded and are in stable condition. The officials told The Associated Press the commandos were Green Berets, and likely came under fire by militants from al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. U.S. Africa Command said in a statement the commandos were near the Mali border, on a joint U.S.-Niger patrol, when they were attacked. The Green Berets are training the Nigerien Armed Forces and offering security assistance as they fight extremists.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.