and that was including rpg-7s. >> reporter: rpg, rocket-propelled grenade. capable of bringing down a helicopter. >> the poachers would like to shoot down a helicopter or aircraft. people that don't care about lives. and that is part of your organized crime. you'll also find that that will escalate to something bigger. >> during september of last year, one of the private security organizations were called out to a poaching incident. they arrested three poachers. they found an at4 rocket, anti-tank rocket, with one of the poachers. >> reporter: the rocket was troubling enough. but where it may have come from was shocking. >> we were able, through a confidential network, to take a look at the serial number of this rocket. and traced it back. that it was issued by the u.s. government to an army in mosul, iraq, prior to isis overruining mosul. once isis overran mosul, that rocket found its way from mosul, iraq, to south africa. >> reporter: isis has already made their mark in africa with brutal attacks in egypt, kenya, lib yeah now against u.s. troops in niger,

but they also know they are taking moss very gently, rpg and all. war against afghanistan, the frontline army field hospital is at best makeshift with limited medical resources. bringing in a human bomb is strictly forbidden. but none of that matters now. >> dr. oh said "we're staying. we are trying. we are going to try to save his life." >> reporter: in a rare medical pairing, surgeons, major kevin kirk and major john oh are joined by explosive expert, sergeant dan brown. >> and i said okay. we're on the same page, then. >> did you ever for a moment think holy cow, this man is alive? >> that's the first thing. i was, like -- i didn't use holy cow, but i used a few other choice words. i was like, he is still alive and the doctor is like, yeah. >> reporter: once in the o.r. they discover what has been buried inside of moss for more than an hour. exposed in this x-ray, doctors and brown are relieved by what they don't see. the deadliest part of the rpg, the main explosive charge, is not in moss. >> so i was like "okay, here. this is a good thing." i s

they came in with light arms fire as well as rpgs. here's what the investigation is looking at. number one, you need to know the cause of death. i apologize for being gory here. that involved autopsies of the four fallen soldiers. they want to find out where they killed by friendly fire, hostile fire, shshrapnel. what led to the intelligence that led them to believe they were on a, quote, quiet environment. this is what's called a key engagement meeting. they were basically going around to tribal elders, tribal villager, trying to have conversations with them and disrupt these rat lines, these lines for terrorists all throughout west africa. here's the biggest two points of confusion right now. number one, what was the med evacuation like? initial reports from everyone here at the pentagon, it was two french super puma helicopters. now they're saying wait a second, it may have been private u.s. military contractors from a group called berry aviation. there are a lot of contractors that work in this part of the world. we still don't know how those wounded and dead were extracted

. >> how long before the helicopters started coming back with bullet holes in them and rpg fragmentsn them and things like that? >> i think all six shot up on the same day. >> september 29th, 1966. just another one of patrick brady's 2,000 combat missions. the call was to rescue 11 american soldiers in a secured area. >> they misjudged the security of the area. we were sitting down, two enemy soldiers came up out of spider traps on each side of the aircraft, shot the crew chief and hook and i could see my crew chief hanging in the harness. i thought he was dead. i heard one shot and i heard the second shot as i was falling backwards into the cargo area. i thought my army was gone and burned and as i laid there, my hand was on my lap and i so wigged my fingers and thought it's still attached. i tucked it between my legs and just kind of looked around and a lot of thoughts coming through my mind in about three seconds. but the main one was if we don't do what we came for, we have to come back. >> you're baddy wounded. you still in spite of your own wounds rushed across the battlefield

and hit by an rpg, navy seals jimmy hatch blasted by an ak-47 after bowe bergdahl walked away from hist in afghanistan in 2009. the sentencing has been held up because his lawyers wanted the case tossed because of comments by donald trump. major changes could be on the way for how we help our nation's heroes heal. two new proposals would give veterans wider access to private care and doctors outside the va network, under a house proposal they would still need approval to switch to private care. the proposal would leave that up to doctors and patients. better care always a good thing. foxbusiness alert, winning, donald trump delivering on another key campaign promise. >> we are going to win so much you might get tired of winning and say please, too much winning. heather: i don't we are tired of seeing this, the tao closing at another record high, 23,400, the 54th record high since donald trump took office. don't hear a lot about that. 11 minutes after the top of the hour, illegals caught hopping the border fence when the cameras were rolling come all the proof we need to build that wall

on the third time my son was hit by an rpg and he was killed. >> i'm sure you know that last night peteicial white house photographer during the obama administration posted a photo on instagram of you and your wife meeting with the president and first lady what can you tell us about those interactions. with the president and first lady? >> all i can tell you is what i observed. i observed two people, barack obama and michelle obama, who had a tremendous degree of compassion. they treated my wife and i extremely well, as i said they were extremely compassionate. we actually met them in the oval office, which is a first for a medal of honor presentation. it's a moment i'll never forget. like i said, the compassion of both was overwhelming. >> so when you hear the president saying that other presidents like barack obama didn't contact the families of fallen soldiers, when you heard that, what did you think? >> i have no idea where he came up with that. when my son was finally okayed to receive the medal of honor barack obama called me personally and told me about it. that was in july of 20

military and it was a pretty sophisticated ambush that included heavy machine guns and mortars and rpgs that require time, planning to get those forces and that weaponry in place. did they need more time than getting a kip off for the villages. there appear to be unanswered questions and we could from senators, the military said it will take 30 days before they have final answers. >> we want to learn lessons so it doesn't happen again. let's discuss all of this. the secretary william cohen is here. thanks very much for joining us. what's your reaction to the new information? >> it doesn't surprise me. when you deploy your forces even if they are only there for training and support missions, they are in a dangerous position and you need reinforce ams on the ready to take care of anything that might happen like this. that's something that the senate and the house want more information about. i'm sure secretary mattis wants more as well. >> the president said he did not give authorization for this mission. he said he trusts the generals and letting the generals decide what to do. is that n

vij village, they were attacked in an elaborate ambush that included mortars, heavy machine guns, rpgs as well, those four soldiers died. we are also learning that that team was new to the area. it was perhaps their first or second mission, though the larger unit had done dozens of missions to that area without incident. this one of the many issues that they continue to investigate, along with why sergeant le david johnson's body was found some mile away from where that first ambush took place, but a military official that i spoke with today said that this was a vicious battle. sometimes in battle, troops get separated from their unit. dave, christine. >> all right, thanks president trump expected to sign a senate approved $36.5 billion aid package to end relief. most of the funding goes to fema's disaster relief program and the national flood insurance program. >> in puerto rico, more than half the cell to youers are operational a. quarter of the island has power. 25% of the island has power. new questions will be raised about a small montana utility firms with tie toss the trump admi

three vets, and mark allen was shot in the head, corporal jonathan hit by an rpg and navy seal, and the47 fire. in 2009. bowe bergdahl's sentencing, his attorneys, for donald trump. ben rhodes, in the intelligence committee, grilled on the unmasking of trump campaign staff that happened until inauguration day. republicans believe, the obama administration officials that made hundreds of requests to identify names found in top-secret intercepts. >> major changes could be on the way for how we help the appeal. wider access for private care in the va network without weight time and distance requirements, push to private care and leave that up to doctors and patients. >> congress rolled back regulations breaking a tie vote in the senate in favor of dismantling the rules that would have allowed consumers to take banks to courts, this outraged a lot of people on the left, the trump administration and congressional republicans made it a priority on to regulations they say on the free market. the measure goes to donald trump's desk for signature. jillian: los angeles dodgers taking home a win i

. >> the president trump rpgs when to prey on the people we're supposed to. any of these agencies ought to have a five-year. >> but he's hiring people and putting them into office. he's doing the reverse revolving door. he's bringing them all in. >> i understand that, but i'm just saying if you want to prevent this happening again at the proportion this happened? let's make that a. they're responsible for protecting the public and all of us from able to believe. >> they said senator mansion can't vote against the republican plan because he says, quote, i turned west virginia around. has he turned west virginia around? >> my conversation with the president, he knows i very much want to work with him on a tax overhaul that bakely gives the person who is getting a paycheck, every day getting a paycheck is able to benefit from a tax reduction. not with people at the top end of the rich, the 1 percenters, as he called the very wealthy, are not going to get. do i want to find something that stimulates the economy and gives us something on a more regular basis? we t

basic facts of what happened here, everything from who was actually there when the gunfire and the rpgstarted coming in. why were they at the village for as long as they were there, why were they visiting these leaders as long as they were? everything. and of course it led to one of the support soldiers, sergeant johnson, he wasn't found immediately had they all left, when they left the scene. >> courtney, in terms of the handling of this issue in washington, obviously what has led this to splai into such an emotionally frustrate and far ranging discussion about service members' families has been the president's reluctance to acknowledge publicly these deaths, to put out even a statement written by somebody else about what happened to explain to the american people the basics of the fact that these service members were lost or the circumstances in which they were lost. do you have any insight, does the pentagon have any insight into why people like general mattis have been willing to spell out the basics and talk to reporters about this but the president himself has been either totally

terms of numbers militant force that was attacking them with small arm machine guns and mortars and rpg'snd now a soldier we spoke to went back to the scene an sent to the scene and he that the nigerens and the soldiers were standing back to back ready to fight to the end. a regional intelligent service said this threat is not quite like that in the middle east. these are desperate militant groups that are, in fact, loosely connected to isis, not getting command and control. >> david mckenzie this morning. tha thank you so much. >>> and still to come, ahead of the president's trip to asia, they warn any attack on the u.s. will be defeated. an update from the region is next. when you clock out, i'll clock in... sensing and automatically adjusting to your every move. there. i can also help with this. does your bed do that? i'm the new sleep number 360 smart bed. let's meet at a sleep number store. if you have moderate to severe ulcerative colitis or crohn's, and your symptoms have left you with the same view, it may be time for a different perspective. if other treatments haven't worked wel

of course, they were attacked by small arms, rpgs and it led to the death of four soldiers and two moreded. >> what's ongoing right now in terms of investigation into what happened? when might we expect here another release of information? >> i would think it would be weeks to even months before we actually have the full investigation completed. so there's several different ones that are under way right now. one is the very standard line of duty investigation. any time an american military member is killed overseas or here, they do these line of duties. that looks at everything from how did the mission start, what happened, what went wrong. there's also another investigation, which is u.s. military called for informal. that's looking at everything. what are they doing? where were they? who was there at the time? how was sergeant johnson, how was he not taken out in the immediate aftermath when the other americans were evacuated out? >> good question on this day as funerals are ongoing. that, of course, a thought for many. courtney, always good turnover you here. thank you. most american

basic facts of what happened here, everything from who was actually there when the gun fire and the rpgs started coming in. why were at the village for as long as they were there, why were they visiting these leaders as long as they were. everything. and then of course it led to one of the support solders, sergeant johnson, he wasn't found immediately when they all left the scene. >> courtney, in terms of -- i guess the handling of this issue in washington, obviously what has led this to spray into such an emotionally fraught and far ranging discussion has been the president's reluctance to acknowledge publicly, those deaths, to put out a statement even written about what happened, to explain the circumstances in which these service members were lost. people like general mattis have been willing to talk to reporters about this, but the president himself has been totally mum or diverts questions to other matters? >> i don't know why, to be honest with you. we don't have a lot of facts from the pentagon or from u.s. africa command. so in the first 48 hours or so after this attack occurred,

they used rpgs and small arms fire, ak-47. four american soldiers were killed and two badly wounded. french mirage aircraft jets came in and flew low passes over the area. they believe that broke up the attack. they didn't drop any bombs or ordinance. they believe the presence is what caused the militants to what they call squirt out or flee from the area. this attack has gotten a lot of attention this week. sergeant la david johnson, his funeral was today. we saw the video from the heartbreaking return and his widow weeping over his casket this week and his funeral was today. it's been brought into so much politics this week. one of the reasons we just don't know a lot of details about exactly what happened is it's still under investigation. then the other reason is just the nature of this mission. it's special forces. they are doing a train, advise and accompany mission there. we never know the specifics about it. >> general, what do you make of courtney's reporting? what we understand so far, clearly some questions about wh

machine gun while the isis linked militants had a great deal of fire power, including mortars and rpgsso they were really, the odds were stacked against them. we heard from a nigerian soldier who was deployed to the scene after the ambush, how the american soldiers and nigerian soldiers were back-to-back trying to fight off until the end. so those details coming out of this ambush. still many questions including why this lightly supported american team went to that danger zone on the border of niger and mali when there have been many attacks in the region in the last year. >> let's talk more about that region and wide-open spaces government not in all of those areas. what more can you tell us about the different terror groups that are operating throughout? >> well, our viewers may not be as familiar of the situation in west fredrick as the middle east. what you have here is a significantly different situation. you have these small, relatively small terror groups linked to isis and al qaeda, loosely linked it must be said. two intelligent sources i spoke to in the region said this ambus

village coming back out of that village, that's when they were ambushed and came under heavy fire, rpgs, machine guns, you had this from this group that is likely linked with isis. a much larger group. 30 minutes into it, you have french fighters that appear overhead. they did not drop ammunitions. then you have two separate medivacs. the first medivac for american casualties done by french super pumas and then the evacuation of the american dead actually happened by an american contractor. now, we have sort of been talking to a lot of folks at the pentagon, was somebody left behind? they are disputing that and saying he was separated. this is david johnson, the fourth found 48 hours later. listen to what general mackenzie said yesterday disputing this notion that the u.s. leaves anyone behind. >> nothing could be further from the truth. and that is an important myth that needs to be corrected now, i think. >> reporter: did i hear you correctly that american troops stayed on the battlefield the entire time until sergeant johnson's body was recovered? >> within the battle space, either a

rpgs they had, machine guns, small arms fire as well. they returned fire. now here's where things get a little fuzzy. about 30 minutes into it, we know that french mirages were overhead, that's a pretty fast time, 30 minutes in, they provide what's called close air support. they were armed. they didn't end up dropping their munitions. we don't know if they just flew over and scattered these islamic extremists that a tacking the americans. somewhere in the chaos of battle, the term you keep hearing in the pentagon is separated. la david johnson was separated from the other troops. the other forces there. there's an evacuation at first, some french helicopters come in, they evacuate the wounded. and then the dead -- remember, there are three american dead. they are evacuated by an american contractor. we don't know the timing of either the medevac, which usually they try to do that in the first hour, or the evacuation of the deceased as well. and then 48 hours later, the nigerian partner forces find la david johnson. she note immediately they realize he was m

rpgs, machine guns. they're also very well concealed, stephanie. there was a lot of brush there. there were basically u.s. troops couldn't see the oncoming ambush. they arise out of the brush and that's when the firefight happened. we also don't have a good sense on whether or not that overflight from the french planes, if that actually broke up and dispersed the enemy or whether or not the fighting had stopped. we're going to get more answers today. we have a variety of briefings here. we're talking to all of our sources but there still is a great deal of confusion. >> all right. well, we want those answers. also joining us live, retired u.s. naval intelligence officer malcolm nance and veteran major general robert scales. welcome. malcolm, i want to start with you. isis-gs, an al qaeda affiliate. this isn't a group i'm familiar with and a lot of other people aren't. do we know about them? >> well, it's a group that a lot of people aren't familiar with principally because they're very small. and to tell you the truth, we didn't think that -- or at least the assessments i've seen

isis then came and they set up an elaborate ambush with heavy machine guns, mortars, rpgs. they attacked u.s. forces there, of course, leading to the four deaths. i should note as well, while the larger unit had had dozens of patrols in that same area, this particular green berets team had only been there on one or two missions before, one or two patrols before, so not as experienced as the larger unit. a lot of questions to be answered and the military looking into the question as to why la david johnson was found a mile away from others, some 48 hours later. >> jim sciutto, thanks very much. "outfront" now, a former member of the skroijoint chiefs of sta frederick leighton. this is one of team's first missions. first or second patrol. earlier, we were told it was the 29th. the 29th time, but only the first or second for this group. should the pentagon have done anything different in terms of districting them support? >> i think so. we don't know everything at the moment. we have to see what the investigative report says, but it sounds at this early stage that what you're

no question about that, hezbollah, we see that whar doing in syria rpgs yemen and iraq, but he's not except that at the cabinet meeting this week in tehran, it united president ro hahn i who is more. he was defending them so he's brought about the political structure. >> just as the situation is creating a very strange sense of agreement across the international spectrum, it's doing the same thing domestically as in uniting the entire country against the way the united states is acting. so this doesn't help us. and they're going to continue to press yemen, syria, iraq. they're going to continue to influence our allies and partners, and above all, they'll undermine israel, our greatest ally in the region. so we have to confront them. but breaking up the coalition against them, which is what this pulling out of the agreement or not process will do is not the right move at this time in my view. >> admiral, thank you very much. thanks for being with us today. >>> and continuing now with our panel, rick stengel, public affairs, and chief correspondent for the "new york times," peter baker

they have technicals which are pickup trucks with heavy weapons, rpgs and mortar. >> why it was a complete shock that they would be attacked by an enemy they were pursuing. they were going out there doing reconnaissance on an enemy. i'm wondered why this is considered a surprise. >> you have just raised the fundamental question that we are all asking, right. it's kind of a balance. they are in this region because there are isis militants around. but these are green berets. these are not the special operations forces that go on these door-knocking missions. these guys are about visiting villages, offering support, gathering intelligence. so we don't understand and the military has not answered how it was that these guys got into this engagement, why there was no overhead surveillance initially to realize that this enemy, these militants were asemi-abouting for a fight. why they didn't realize this village was compromised if in fact it was compromised. these interest questions that the investigation is trying to answer, chris. >> we've still got to get some more. by the way, what is hvt? >>

it involved heavy machine guns, mortars, rpgs and it was in that fire fight where they lost their livunanswered questions but one thing we know, as well in combat situations like this, it's often confusing and oftentimes soldiers do get separated from their units. kate? >> absolutely. david, you're on the grounds there. talk to me about the challenges that u.s. troops are up against. >> reporter: well, look, many senators or several have expressed shock that many according to them, 800 or so soldiers are here in the theater in niger. flying into this country, you really get a sense of the challenges they face, the vast sahil, the desert area where the u.s. is helping to do investigation gathering assisting the nigerian troops. they have to cover an area the size of the continent st. louis u.s., often in areas where there have been attacks in the past. that's another question that will be added to this investigationings is whether the intelligence they had going inning to what is being described as a roo assignment by these green berets and other special forces how it ended up in this

remember, when they came under attack they faced machine guns and rpgs, there was terrain, some bushes there. they're trying to figure out what happened in the contact, in the battle but also beforehand. this is called a key leader engagement. they go basically meet with triable elders. were they delayed? that's a key question that we don't have an answer or did the villagers delay them. and then finally there's an open question on how u.s. forces were evacuated. the initial reports, official reports was ts super puma french helicopters of the more recently there's been some reporting and actually indeed after come is saying it was barry aviation, which is a private contractor -- >> why does that matter? >> well, because all throughout -- whenever you have u.s. troops in danger you want to abide by the golden hour and that is getting to them within the first hour of conflict, first hour of contact. if it was indeed a private contractor, we still don't know how quickly they were extracted. we do know that the french 30 minutes into it flew over with fighter jets. we also know that they

but as general dunford said, that consisted of some 50 militants are rpgs, light machine guns and vehicles. so, again, many questions, though, remain unanswered about what exactly happened during the fire fight. were the local villagers the team meeting with, were they complicit in the ambush? some officials told cnn previously they might have been. these are other questions that need to be found out. there's an investigation on the way. one thing that's definitely not known at this time is how sergeant johnson became separated from the rest of his team and was missing for almost 48 hours. >> all right. thank you very much, ryan brown. as ryan said, no answers yet for that as well as whether they were wearing body armor. the mission, itself. "outfront" now, retired brigadier general donald, he until june commanded special operation forces on the african contine continent, knows more about this than anyone. senior political analyst mark preston with me. senior writer and terror correspondent for "the new york times," eric schmidt. along with former cia operative bob baer. 19 days later we g

machine guns, rpgs, mortars.ime, setup, perhaps planning that adds to the sense they were tipped off to their presence there. >> david mackenzie, you're here th err on the ground there in niger, not far from where the attack took place. we're told it's a hotbed of islamic activity. how big a challenge has this been for american and nigerian forces? >> reporter: well, it's a big challenge for the nigerians and certainly that's one of the reasons why there are american soldiers on the ground here. just a few house from where i'm standing is where that deadly ambush took place, jake. and that is an area on the border of mali where you have these very fluid militant groups moving in and out across the borders engaging in these kinds of attacks. one of the big questions right now, jake, is whether there was some kind of intelligence failure that sent these american soldiers into harm's way and what was supposed to be a routine mission which seemed to not a very high level of threat against these soldiers. as jim descr

giving time for 50 heavily armed militants armed with rocket propelled grenades and rpgs and heavy machineuns to surprise attack on the u.s. troops. >> the fact of the matter is it's a battlefield. we had a significant engagement. tough country in the middle of nowhere. not as clear as it might appear in bright lights in the briefing room. >> it took place near the border with mali where french fighters have been pushing them into the path of the soldiers. this video given to fox news by aide group shows the terrain with scrub brush, mountains and officials say that the terrorism has been rising in the region, bill, giving all the more reason for these soldiers to come under attack. >> bill: to be there in the first place. were these soldiers expecting any opposition, lucas? have we been able to answer that question? >> officials here at the pentagon say the short answer is no. both defense secretary mattis and senior marine corps general say there were 29 patrols in the six months from this same u.s. special operations team and secretary mattis addressed the issue yesterday at the pentago

but what you're referring to is that we're trying to do the right thing for the long term rpgs so when i say our core loans were up 3.2%, we have a couple categories we all optimizing loans, auto portfolio and mortgage portfolio we've been allowing the mortgage portfolio to run off because we frankly think we're heading into a rising rate environment. and, you know, having a lot of long-term fixed rate loans is not very smart when you think rates are rising so that's a very strategic decision that allows those loans to run off and we're replacing them with much better priced floating type of cni loans and that's going very well. >> i'm just looking at all the branchs that you're shuttering as well, kelly, how does that fit in with what you described in terms of rising rates or what is the rationale behind shuttering so many of those branches >> so, you know, kelly, the word has really changed in the last two, three years it's been incredible and in many respects one of the post importamost impe all heard about digitalization the clients are moving really fast in terms of digitally inte

corporal jonathan berido hit by rpg.s held up because the lawyer wants the case tossed over recent comments by president trump. >>> los angeles dodgers taking home a win in game one of the world series. >> high flyball into left. off the bat of turner. at the wall, it's gone! jillian: donors beating astros 3-1. can handle the heat. last night's fame was hottest world series game ever. game temperature 103 degrees. the previous record was 94 degrees during game six in 2004 world series. ainsley: it is so hot, how do they do that? steve: they're in the world series. they don't feel it. jillian: fans sitting in the seats are sweating and gross. ainsley: do they serve beer? jillian: cold beer, that is what you need. steve: it is 12 buck as beer. brian: they don't like to say the whole game. 12 minutes after the hour. steve: fox news alert now. hillary clinton campaign and dnc teamed up apparently to pay fusion gps for the trump dossier. one man targeted by fusion gps here to react next. brian: right. rumors have been i recal