By all accounts, the war in Iraq is winding down and the bulk of the US forces there is preparing to withdraw. In fact, the latest news suggests that around 100,000 will be back home by August 2010 and some 40,000-50,000 will stay in Iraq.The remaining smaller force will train Iraqi security forces, protect US diplomats and civilian officials and what officials call "counter and fight terrorism," meaning they will fight al-Qaeda above all. Of course, a significant part of the residual force will consist of US special forces under the US Special Operations Command (SOCOM), a largely secret command, which has long been engaged in counterterrorism operations in Iraq.
SOCOM oversees the various special operations commands of the Army, Navy, Air Force and the Marines. It conducts both covert and overt missions, including unconventional warfare, foreign internal defense, special reconnaissance and psychological, direct action, counterterrorism and anti-narcotics operations.
In fact, SOCOM has been the driving force of both the war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan since before both officially started.
SOCOM's 10th Special Forces group and a CIA group acted together and were the first to enter Iraq prior to the invasion in 2003. Their efforts organized the Kurdish peshmerga to defeat the Ansar al-Islam in northern Iraq close to the Iranian border. The battle was for control of territory in northeastern Iraq that was completely occupied by Ansar al-Islam, an ally of al-Qaeda. This was a very significant battle and led to the termination of a substantial number of militants. The combined team of special operations and CIA forces later led the peshmerga against Saddam's northern army, thereby making the invasion much easier.
At the beginning of the war in Iraq, dozens of 12-member special forces teams infiltrated southern and western Iraq to search for Scud missiles and pinpoint bombing targets. Scores other teams seized oil terminals and pumping stations on the southern coast. After the invasion and during the occupation, special forces conducted a number of operations against insurgent groups and, of course, al-Qaeda, killing and capturing of hundreds of militants.
As for the war in Afghanistan, at the outset of the war, SOCOM forces linked up with paramilitary officers from the CIA's Special Activities Division to defeat the Taliban without the need for large-scale conventional ground forces. This was largely successful. These units linked up several times during this war and engaged in several furious battles with both the Taliban and al-Qaeda forces. One such battle took place during Operation Anaconda. The aim of this operation was to clean up an important al-Qaeda stronghold dug deep into the Tora Bora of eastern Afghanistan. The operation was one of the heaviest and bloodiest fights in the war in Afghanistan. The battle on a 3,000-meter-high mountaintop called Takur Ghar featured special operation forces from the CIA and three of the four branches of the US Armed Forces. According to an executive summary, the battle of Takur Ghar was the most intense firefight US special forces have been involved in since 18 US Army rangers were killed in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1983.
Today, a significant number of SOCOM forces and CIA personnel are deployed in both Iraq and Afghanistan mainly to fight al-Qaeda forces and the Taliban. Of course, we do not know much about their operations or activities, but the thing we do know is that they will be in those countries for many years to come.
SOCOM has been the covert army of the US in many clandestine operations, and it will remain so with about 60,000 men and a budget of about $7 billion.
Benzer Haberler 
