- Col. Mamady Doumbouya led special forces into the presidential palace and deposed the country's 83-year-old president Alpha Condé
- Doumbouya is a familiar figure to American forces who have help train 100 Special Forces members led by the Colonel and have worked with him for years
- Due to the timing and the close relationship with the Colonel the current situation has been an 'embarrassment' for the Pentagon, the Times reported
- A video of American solders smiling as they make their way to the U.S. Embassy on Sunday has led to suspicion of American involvement in the coup
- Doumbouya's coup was most likely fueled by tensions within the defense establishment who deprived his Special Forces unit of resources
U.S forces were caught off guard when a Guinean colonel they trained turned out to be the mastermind behind the country's recent coup and is now the leader of the West African nation.
Col. Mamady Doumbouya has declared himself the new leader of Guinea after he led special forces into the presidential palace and deposed the country's 83-year-old president, Alpha Condé, on September 5, the New York Times reported.
He is said to have slipped away to mount the coup early Sunday, raising suspicions he did so while his US instructors were asleep.
They had been working with Doumbouya and other Guinean service personnel to train them in counterterrorism techniques, and to help them prop up their civilian government.
Guinea's new leader and his allies are said to have been angered after Condé successfully changed the country's constitution to enable him to serve a third term as president.
Doumbouya, once a close ally to Condé, is a familiar figure to American forces, who have been in the country since July to train a group of about 100 Special Forces members led by the Colonel and have worked with him for years.
Doumbouya (center) is a familiar figure to American forces who have helped train 100 Special Forces members led by the Colonel and have worked with him for years
Kelly Cahalan, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Africa Command, told the Times the coup is 'inconsistent with U.S. military training and education.'
U.S. officials also told the Times, who obtained a photo of Doumbouya posing with U.S. military officials outside the American Embassy, they were 'puzzled' by his decision to stage a coup at a moment when he was working so closely with Americans.
U.S. officials said they were looking into reports that Doumbouya and his conspirators slipped away from the training base in the middle of the night while instructors were sleeping, the Times reported. By GINA MARTINEZ FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
