A controversy that erupted over a telephone call US President Donald Trump made to the widow of a fallen soldier flared up again after the widow told an interviewer the president treated her disrespectfully.
Myeshia Johnson, 24, said Trump struggled to remember her husband's name during the call, which last week ignited a firestorm over Trump's choice of words.
"I heard him stumbling on trying to remember my husband's name, and that's what hurt me the most because if my husband is out here fighting for our country and he risked his life for our country why can't you remember his name?" Johnson said in an interview broadcast on ABC.
That made her "cry even more", she said in her first public comment about the call.
Trump countered in a tweet: "I had a very respectful conversation with the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, and spoke his name from beginning, without hesitation!"
Johnson, 25, was killed October 4 in Niger along with three other US soldiers.
The circumstances surrounding the soldiers' mission and their deaths have come into question after it came to light that Johnson had gone missing after the troops engaged in a firefight with an Islamic State-affiliated group. His body was not recovered until two days later.
The US top military officer said on Monday the families of those killed in the special forces operation in Niger deserve answers on what happened.
The soldiers killed were part of an 800-strong force in Niger which is involved in training local forces to address terrorist threats, said General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.
Dunford stressed the investigation would seek to provide answers and that the death of four US service members was "a big deal to me".
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