Army Special Operations Command
Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar was killed June 4 in Bamako, Mali.
- A US Army Green Beret was found strangled to death in his hotel in Bamako, Mali.
- The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is investigating two Navy SEALs who were flown out of the country just after the killing and placed on administrative leave.
After Staff Sgt. Logan J. Melgar of the US Army's elite Special Forces turned up dead at his hotel in Bamako, Mali, military criminal authorities launched an investigation into two Navy SEALs who were flown out of the country just after the death, and placed on "administrative leave," according to The New York Times.
Melgar, who was found dead on June 4, belonged to the same unit that lost four soldiers in an ambush in Niger earlier in October. The SEALs in question belonged to SEAL Team 6, the same unit that killed Osama Bin Laden in 2011.
Military medical examiners ruled Melgar's death "a homicide by asphyxiation," and the two SEALs who were staying at the same hotel have gone from being referred to as "witnesses" to "persons of interest," according to the Times.
The incident took place just a few months before it dawned on many in the US, including members of Congress, that the US has a large, wide-ranging military presence in Africa.
Melgar, and the SEALs in question, worked in Mali gathering intelligence and helping local forces train and conduct counterterrorism missions, according to the Times.
Outside of tragic mistakes and friendly fire episodes, US servicemembers rarely kill each other, prompting wild speculation about why the SEALs may have acted against Melgar. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) is on the case.