Report: U.S. soldier slain in Niger may have been kidnapped by Islamic fighters

There is speculation that one of the fallen U.S. soldiers in Niger, Sergeant La David Johnson, may have been killed after getting kidnapped by Islamic extremist fighters.

According to a CBS News report on Friday, military sources inside the West African country “believe ISIS fighters decided to try and kidnap Johnson. The fighters later shot him and dumped his body in the bushes, his hands roped together.”

The report comes as questions still remain about why Johnson’s body was not recovered until two days after the October 4 attack which killed three fellow soldiers.

Inside Johnson's funeral:

There are also conflicting accounts about the purpose of the mission. While the U.S. Defense Department has said the men were doing reconnaissance work when they were ambushed by enemy combatants, Niger’s Interior Minister, Mohamed Bazoum, told Reuters, “It was an intelligence mission but also a mission of an operational nature.”

The news service says unnamed Nigerian sources have claimed the mission was intended to target a “suspected recruiter for…an Islamic State affiliate.”

The U.S. side has denied the soldiers were there for this purpose, and the BBC notes, “It is highly unlikely that these troops were on a high-risk mission – otherwise they would have had a stronger deployment.”

As investigators look into the incident further, more details are expected to be released in the days ahead.