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 / Updated By Ken Dilanian, Courtney Kube and Mac William Bishop 
 
 The U.S. Special Forces unit that came under attack in Niger earlier this month had been pursuing a senior militant, multiple U.S. officials told NBC News. 
 
 The officials did not provide the name of the target, whom one of the officials described as an ISIS recruiter. The soldiers did not succeed in catching him. 
 
 Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters Monday that the Green Berets set out on a reconnaissance mission, and that the intelligence suggested there was a low risk of contact with the enemy. He also said the military was investigating whether the mission changed as it unfolded. 
 
 One theory, said an official with direct knowledge of the military's investigation, is that the soldiers were gathering information about the target, and, after learning his whereabouts, decided to pursue him. A big question would then be whether the unit got authorization, and whether the risks were assessed. 
 
 It's also possible that the 30 Nigerien troops the Americans were accompanying decided to pursue the target, one official said. 
 
 NBC News reported Monday that military officials believe the unit was set up, and that residents in a village they visited provided information about their location to the militants who later ambushed them. 
 
 It was unclear, the officials said, whether the villagers tipped off the target the Americans were pursuing. 
 
 The Niger mission was carried out under the broader auspices of Operation Juniper Shield, a program initiated under the Obama administration and reauthorized under the Trump administration, according to multiple U.S. military officials. Juniper Shield is intended to "disrupt or neutralize" terror organizations affiliated with Al Qaeda and the Islamic State operating across North and West Africa, primarily through the killing or capturing of members of its senior and intermediate leadership. 
 
 A subset of this operation, Juniper Micron, is focused specifically on supporting the French counterterror and stabilization mission in Mali, Operation Barkhane. 
 
 Related: Niger Ambush Was Partly Result of 'Massive' Intelligence Failure, Says Official 
 
 The primary target of all of these missions is a terrorist organization based in Mali and Libya known as Al-Mourabitoun. 
 
 Al-Mourabitoun isn't well known by the American public or policymakers, but the group and its affiliates have an extensive history of activity across West Africa and the Sahara. Al-Mourabitoun has been tied to a string of deadly attacks that have killed hundreds since the group's formation in 2013. 
 
 Those attacks have grown in sophistication while increasing in lethality and frequency. 
 
 Among them: a January suicide bombing against a military base in Gao, Mali, that killed 77; a March 2016 attack on a beach resort in Ivory Coast that killed 21; a January 2016 attack targeting foreigners in Burkina Faso that killed 30, including American missionary Mike Riddering. 
 
 A photo from the Department of Defense shows four U.S. soldiers killed in Niger: Staff Sgt. Bryan C. Black (Top-L), Sgt. La David Johnson (top-R), Staff Sgt. Dustin M. Wright (bottom-L), and Staff Sgt. Jeremiah W. Johnson (bottom-R). Dept of Defense / EPA 
 
 The group also seized a gas facility in Algeria in an attack that left 39 hostages dead in January 2013. 
 
 "We have seen Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and their affiliates expanding their reach from Northern Mali into central and southern Mali recently," said a spokesperson for Special Operations Command Africa, when asked whether there had been an increase in activity by Al-Mourabitoun or related groups in the area over the past several months. 
 
 On Oct. 4, the team of Green Berets, officially known as an Operational Detachment Alpha or ODA, was on its second field operation in Niger, according to two of the military officials. Part of 3rd Special Forces Group, it had recently replaced its predecessor, 10th Special Forces Group, for a six-month rotation in country. 10th Group had completed more than 20 similar missions in support of Juniper Shield with its Nigerien partners before its departure. 
 
 ODAs are U.S. Army Special Forces units that work with foreign militaries to build partnerships and enhance capabilities, often by conducting joint training missions or acting as a "force multiplier" by adding critical skills, such as intelligence coordination or directing air support. 
 
 Two of the American officials told NBC News that at least part of the mission on Oct. 3 and 4 was an intelligence-directed operation. The team was trying to verify a piece of single-source intelligence and had set up a meeting with an individual who promised further information. 
 
 Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, briefs the media at the Pentagon on Oct. 23. Mark Wilson / Getty Images 
 
 Military officials told NBC News on Monday that they suspected that meeting may have been a set-up. 
 
 The target of the intelligence activity was the immediate circle of leadership surrounding a militant named Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahraoui, a veteran insurgent originally from Laayoune in Western Sahara, according to two sources. 
 
 "We can't discuss specific targeting details for operational security reasons," an official from Special Operations Command Africa told NBC News. 
 
 Al-Sahraoui is affiliated with the insurgent group Al-Mourabitoun, which was led for many years by Mokhtar Belmokhtar, aka the "Marlboro Man." Belmokhtar has been reported killed numerous times, most recently in Libya in June 2015 from a U.S. airstrike. 
 
 Al-Mourabitoun — or at least one of its affiliate brigades — now appears to be led by al-Sahraoui, who on May 14, 2015, released an audio message pledging allegiance to ISIS. Several days later, Belmokhtar issued a message rejecting this pledge and affirming the group's loyalty to Al Qaeda. However, Belmokhtar was reported dead in an apparent U.S. airstrike a month later, but the group has not acknowledged that he was killed and there is no way to independently confirm his fate. 
 
 ISIS publicly accepted al-Sahraoui's pledge of allegiance in 2016. 
 
 Wounded Malian troops receive medical treatment after a suicide bombing at a base in Gao, Mali, on Jan. 18, 2017. Yacouba Cisse / AP file 
 
 Because of the varying accounts of who is in charge of Al-Mourabitoun, and precisely what its goals and loyalties are, the subgroup operated by al-Sahraoui is sometimes referred to by other names: One of these is the Islamic State of the Greater Sahel, abbreviated ISGS — or sometimes ISIS-GS. 
 
 When asked whether the Pentagon had details about the perpetrators of the ambush against the Americans on Oct. 4, Dunford confirmed ISIS was a primary suspect. 
 
 "It was an ISIS affiliated group," the general said. "ISIS and Al Qaeda try to leverage local insurgencies and connect those insurgencies globally." 
 
 "Is this a dangerous area? Yeah," Dunford said. "We're there because ISIS and Al Qaeda are there." ||||| Nearly three weeks after the deadly ambush on U.S. Special Ops forces in Niger, ABC News has learned chilling new details about the mission gone wrong from a survivor of the attack and a senior U.S. intelligence official. 
 
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 Their accounts, provided in separate interviews, raise questions about why a second, potentially more dangerous mission was tacked on late in the day even after a second team that was supposed to join them was unable to do so. 
 
 What was started as a reconnaissance mission to meet with local leaders turned into a kill-or-capture mission aimed at a high-value target, according to both sources. 
 
 That target – codenamed Naylor Road – has ties to both al Qaeda and ISIS, according to the intelligence official. 
 
 According to multiple intelligence sources, this target is one of the U.S.’s “top three objectives in Niger,” one that the U.S. has been “actively pursuing.” 
 
 But that change in plan meant that the team was out for over 24 hours and put them at greater risk. 
 
 “They should have been up and back in a day. Because they were up there so f------ long on a mission that morphed, they were spotted, surveilled and ultimately hit,” the official said. 
 
 Joe Skipper/Reuters 
 
 Despite being massively outnumbered, the American and Nigerien troops held their own -- including Sgt. La David Johnson, who was killed in the ambush, the sources told ABC News. 
 
 “He was the best kid you could ask for,” the survivor said of Johnson, who fought back the militants with machine gun fire from the back of a pickup truck, before grabbing a sniper rifle and continuing to shoot. 
 
 “The guy is a true war hero,” the survivor added. “I really want his wife and kids to know that.” 
 
 The team of 12 Americans set out with 30 Nigerien soldiers in the early morning on Oct. 3, according to the sources and confirmed by Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who on Monday offered the first official timeline of events for the ambush in Niger. 
 
 They rode in six to eight vehicles, three of them American. They were headed from Niamey, Niger’s capital, to a village 85 kilometers to the north, called Tiloa. 
 
 Their pre-mission threat assessment never considered the possibility of 50 to 60 enemy combatants attacking them, according to the official. That matches what Dunford told reporters on Monday. He also added that the leaders on the ground assessed that contact with the enemy was unlikely. 
 
 On their way back, the team received a call from the base back in Niamey, asking them to turn around and kill or capture a high-value target who is a known al Qaeda and ISIS operative, according to two senior officials. 
 
 There was “high confidence” that the target was in the area, the sources told ABC News. A second U.S. Special Forces team was directed to meet up with their patrol, but when they could not, the original 12-member team and their Nigerien partners were told to proceed anyway. 
 
 The team arrived at the target location in the early morning hours of Oct. 4, but found nothing. They burned the remnants of the abandoned campsite and headed back south as the sun came up, stopping back through a nearby village called Tongo Tongo around 8:30 AM. 
 
 There, the Nigerien force requested they stop to eat, while U.S. soldiers met with a village elder, who was “obviously and deliberately trying to stall them,” according to the official. 
 
 “He was definitely stalling as long as he could to keep us there,” the survivor said, saying he had an entourage, showed the unit a child with an illness, and even grabbed a goat he wanted to prepare for them. 
 
 Gaston De Carden/AFP/Getty Images 
 
 But the unit suspected something was definitely wrong when they saw two motorcycle riders watch them and race out of the village. 
 
 The “hair on the back of their necks stood up,” a U.S. official told ABC News. 
 
 It was around midmorning or midday by the time the team departed the village. According to the survivor, they had only gone a few hundred yards when they came under fire from machine guns, mortars, and rocket-propelled grenades. 
 
 An assessment is still underway to determine who ambushed the patrol, but the survivor said it is “absolutely” possible that the high-value target was involved. Dunford said Monday the Pentagon assessment is that “it is an ISIS-affiliated group.” 
 
 The unit began returning fire, including with their own machine guns mounted on two of the American vehicles, according to the senior official. 
 
 One vehicle was hit by a mortar and another vehicle was disabled by gunfire. 
 
 U.S. Army 
 
 Exactly how and where Johnson died remains unclear, but the survivor praised him as a “war hero” who went “above and beyond” to defend his team. 
 
 “Without a doubt, his courage and bravery in action that day were above and beyond expectation. He died fighting for his brothers on his team. You can quote that verbatim,” the survivor added. “He grabbed any and every weapon available to him. The guy is a true war hero.” 
 
 One hour into the fight, the unit requested support – with an unarmed drone reaching them in minutes, according to Dunford. 
 
 The senior intelligence official credited the French forces who responded with “saving our bacon.” 
 
 “The French saved our men. Yes, we lost four. But we would have lost everybody if it wasn't for the French,” the official told ABC News. 
 
 Within an hour of the calls – and two hours after the firefight started – French Mirage fighter jets came overhead, Dunford confirmed. 
 
 They flew low to scare off the ISIS-affiliated fighters. They did not drop bombs, however, because “they didn’t know exactly where our guys were situated,” the official said. 
 
 Shortly after, French Special Forces from Ouagadougou in neighboring Burkina Faso arrived on attack helicopters, each with one or two U.S. Green Berets. French helicopters evacuated the wounded to Niamey, Niger’s capital. 
 
 But it wasn’t until two days later on the evening of Oct. 6, according to Dunford, that Johnson’s body was found. The top general denied that the U.S. ever left him behind, arguing that French, American, or Nigerien troops were in the area at all times until his body was recovered. 
 
 The survivor described an all-out effort to find Johnson during those 48 hours, saying he was missing, but presumed alive. 
 
 “Until his death was confirmed, every asset was devoted to recovering him,” the survivor said. “We threw everything we had at it… Literally hundreds of people were focused on getting La David back.” 
 
 It was Nigerien forces that eventually found Johnson’s body, according to Dunford. 
 
 The White House was notified as soon as there was a report of a missing soldier, according to Dunford – meaning some time on the evening of Oct. 4.
– A survivor of the ambush on US Special Ops forces in Niger offers new details of the Oct. 4 attack to ABC News, declaring that Sgt. La David Johnson was killed while going "above and beyond" to defend others in the group. "He died fighting for his brothers on his team," the survivor says. "He grabbed any and every weapon available to him. The guy is a true war hero." A senior US intelligence official also spoke to ABC News, raising questions about why the team had a second mission added late in the day despite a second team being unable to join them as planned. The team was originally on a reconnaissance mission to talk to local leaders, both sources say, but then a kill-or-capture objective focused on a high-value target with ties to al-Qaeda and ISIS was added on. Multiple US officials confirmed that the team was looking for a high-value target to NBC News as well. "They should have been up and back in a day. Because they were up there so f---ing long on a mission that morphed, they were spotted, surveilled, and ultimately hit," the official who spoke to ABC says. The team of 12 Americans and 30 Nigerien soldiers was out for more than a full day and was on its way back when it was asked to turn around and find the high-value target, the sources say; that directive did not change even when a second US Special Forces team that was supposed to meet up with the original team could not. The team found nothing at the target location and was again on its way back when they stopped to eat, and a village elder who met with the US soldiers was "obviously and deliberately trying to stall them," per both sources. The team also saw two motorcycle riders watching them and then quickly leaving the village. Shortly after the team departed, they were attacked.