In the spring in North Africa, a Toyota Land Cruiser skidded off a bridge in the dusk and plunged into the Niger River. When rescuers came, they discovered three dead women and the bodies of three American Army commandos.
The men’s activities in the underdeveloped nation of Mali and their continued presence there a month after the United States broke off military ties with its government are at the heart of a mystery that authorities have not fully addressed even ten weeks later.
The April 20 mishap at the very least revealed a group of Special Operations personnel that had been operating in Mali, a Saharan nation torn apart by civil conflict and a burgeoning Islamist insurgency, for months. More generally, the crash has given a rare look at elite American commando units in North Africa, where they have been covertly fighting al-Qaeda affiliates.