Iraqi Counter Terrorism Service CTS

IG Report on Operation Inherent Resolve – Feb 2023

March 10, 2023 SOF News 0

The Office of Inspector General for the United States Department of State has published its quarterly report to the United States Congress on Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR). The report summarizes the overseas contingency operation to defeat the Islamic State in […]

Map Middle East

Middle East Update – January 2021

January 31, 2021 SOF News 0

Recent news, analysis, and commentary about the Middle East – politics, conflict, Iraq withdrawal, and great power competition. Security Overview CENTCOM Now Has Israel. In his last week in office President Trump ordered that U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) add Israel […]

Iranian Proxy Groups

JSOU Paper: Iranian Proxy Groups in the Middle East

January 14, 2021 SOF News 0

The Iranian regime maintains a network of proxies including Lebanese Hezbollah, various Shiite militias in Iraq, the Houthis in Yemen, and foreign fighters in Syria. This paper by the Joint Special Operations University (JSOU) provides a look at the problem […]

Syria bombing casualties January 2019

Syria Bombing Victims Identified

January 18, 2019 SOF News 0

The Department of Defense has identified three of the four Americans who died on Wednesday, January 16, 2019 in Manbji, Syria in a suicide bombing. The patrol was on an engagement patrol when the attack occurred. A suicide bomber detonated […]

Jonathan Farmer, KIA in Syria, 2019, 5th Special Forces Group

Jonathan Farmer- SF WO KIA in Syria

January 18, 2019 SOF News 0

​Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jonathan Farmer, age 37, of Boynton Beach, Florida died of wounds sustained during an attack while conducting a local engagement in Manbij, Syria, January 16, 2019. Born April 27, 1981, Farmer joined the U.S. Army on […]

Casualties in Syria

Four U.S. KIA in Syria

January 17, 2019 SOF News 0

Four Americans died on Wednesday, January 16, 2019 in Manbji, Syria while on an engagement patrol. A suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest killing two U.S. servicemembers, one DoD civilian, and DoD contractor. Three other U.S. servicemembers were wounded. Approximately […]

Map Syria Admin Divisions CIA 2007

No Friends But The Mountains

December 20, 2018 SOF News 0

Once again the Kurds are cast aside. This is nothing new. Over the span of the past 100 years they have been used as proxy forces and then kicked to the side of the curb once their usefulness has run […]

MSG Dunbar - Coalition Casualties Syria

Coalition Casualties Syria – March 29, 2018

March 30, 2018 SOF News 0

Coalition Casualties Syria – On March 30, 2018 Central Command announced that two coalition personnel were killed and five were wounded by an improvised explosive device in Syria at approximately 9 p.m. GMT March 29th. The wounded personnel received immediate […]

SF trainer in Panama explains ranger procedures to Panamanian counterterrorism security forces in Panama. (photo by SSG Osvaldo Equite SOCSouth, Jan 20, 2018).

Special Operations News Update 20180312

March 12, 2018 SOF News 0

SOF News Update 20180312 – 2003 JSOC raid into Iraq, intel in corporate world, some great SF photos, USSOCOM and ‘hard problems’, Britain’s WWII GW, conflict in Mali, Kurds shifting focus to invading Turkish forces, MQ-1 Predator to retire, 10th […]

B-52 Strategic Bomber (USAF photo)

Defense Update – News, Analysis, and Commentary

October 24, 2017 SOF News 0

Defense Update – Revisiting FM 3-25, nation-building in Syria, South Asia strategy, Kilcullen on urban combat, Somalia’s 9/11, and more. Re-visiting FM 3-24. General Petraeus is famous for many things. He is credited with winning the Iraq War, he was […]

Map of Syria and Iraq (CJTF-OIR)

Middle East War News Update 20171022

October 22, 2017 SOF News 0

ME Update 20171022 – Russia helping the Kurds, Iranian proxies gain ground in northern Iraq, Syrian Kurds advance into oil fields, stabilizing Mosul, Raqqa and governance, Iranian influence in Yemen, Salafism in Gaza, British jihadists, and more. Iraq Iranian Proxies Advancing […]