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KYIV, Ukraine — A powerful attack on a Russian air base in occupied Crimea was the work of Ukrainian special forces, a Ukrainian government official told The Washington Post on Wednesday, suggesting an increasingly important role for covert forces operating deep behind enemy lines as the country expands efforts to expel Russian troops. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, did not disclose details of how Tuesday’s attack was carried out. The attack marks a significant escalation in the nearly six-month-old war, demonstrating a new ability by...

President Biden has signed an order authorizing the military to once again deploy hundreds of Special Operations forces inside Somalia — largely reversing the decision by President Donald J. Trump to withdraw nearly all 700 ground troops who had been stationed there, according to four officials familiar with the matter. In addition, Mr. Biden has approved a Pentagon request for standing authority to target about a dozen suspected leaders of Al Shabab, the Somali terrorist group that is affiliated with Al Qaeda, three of the officials said. Since Mr. Biden took office, airstrikes have largely been limited to those meant...

The U.S. Army’s annual unconventional warfare exercise Robin Sage is set to kick off across rural North and South Carolina this month, pitting Special Forces candidates against simulated guerillas fighting for the fictional nation of “Pineland.” The exercise is so realistic and spans such a large area that the U.S. Army has issued notices to local law enforcement agencies warning them not to mistake the exercise for a real insurrection, an error that has cost one soldier his life during a previous Robin Sage event. Robin Sage is conducted annually by the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center...

US special operators have played an instrumental role in the fight against terrorists and insurgent groups over the past 20 years. Now, as the Pentagon focuses on preparing for a conflict a near-peer or peer military, like China and Russia, the special-operations community is looking for ways to remain relevant in a completely different type of war. Army special-operations units are particularly concerned, as they make up most of the US Special Operations Command's (SOCOM) numbers.

The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that a “special-operations unit and a contingent of Marines have been secretly operating in Taiwan to train military forces there, U.S. officials said, part of efforts to shore up the island’s defenses as concern regarding potential Chinese aggression mounts. About two dozen members of U.S. special-operations and support troops are conducting training for small units of Taiwan’s ground forces.”For folks like me who distrust the Chinese Communists, and thus pray Beijing doesn’t attempt to conquer Taiwan, this is good news.This information clearly was leaked, probably to serve as a deterrent, reminding China that a...

A diehard team of SAS fighters have volunteered to stay behind in Afghanistan to avenge the deaths of 13 US troops ­murdered at Kabul airport. Sources say up to 40 members of the Who Dares Wins regiment have asked to remain in the war-torn nation so they can take the fight to IS-K – the terrorist group behind Thursday’s suicide bombing and gun attack. The dramatic move came as the last UK civilian evacuation flight left the airport on Saturday – with 150 British passport holders still stranded in the city.... The SAS party is likely to establish a base...

@ColumbiaBugle Must Watch Tucker Carlson Interview With U.S. Army Veteran And Candidate For Congress @joekent16jan19 On The Afghanistan Tragedy Today Joe: "Today has been an absolute tragedy, but unfortunately I think we're seeing over nearly two decades of lies come unraveling." Segment...

I understand that the commanding general of the 82nd Airborne Division has told the commander of the British special forces at the Kabul airport to cease operations beyond the airport perimeter. Maj. Gen. Christopher Donahue has told his British Army counterpart, a high-ranking field-grade officer of the British army's 22nd Special Air Service Regiment, that British operations were embarrassing the United States military in the absence of similar U.S. military operations. I understand that the British officer firmly rejected the request. This show of rare tension between the U.S. and British command groups in Kabul reflects three factors. First, it...

[My translation- JA] Media in Iran have reported this evening (Tuesday) on an explosion and fire on a ship of the Iranian Navy, the Harj. The ship, which serves as a forward base for special forces, attack ships and the launch of drones, went up in flames in the Gulf of Oman. According to reports in Iranian media, the ship returned to an unidentified port, where local forces worked to extinguish the fire. They further reported that there were no injuries in the incident. In Iran they have denied reports on social networks that the Harj was making its way...

Biden’s nominee for assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict, Christopher Maier, if confirmed is sure to get the attention of Beijing given his words this week to the Senate Armed Services Committee on Taiwan. The man who is also head of the Department of Defense’s Defeat-ISIS Task Force urged Congressional leaders in a Thursday briefing to establish a program for US special forces to train local troops in Taiwan toward deterring a possible “Chinese invasion”. As the official tapped to oversee all US special forces he’s pushing an irregular warfare Vietnam-style preparedness scenario in Taiwan, which...

A linguist for the Department of Defense pleaded guilty on Friday to passing classified information about U.S. human intelligence sources to an individual with ties to Hezbollah, a Lebanese terrorist organization, the Department of Justice said. Mariam Taha Thompson began sending the information after the U.S. killed Qassem Soleimani, a top Iranian military commander, in an airstrike in early 2020, according to court documents. Thompson, who held a top secret security clearance, had been stationed at a Special Operations Task Force facility in Iraq from mid-December 2019 until her arrest a few months later. Years before she began passing classified...

United States Special Operations Command (SOCOM) has hired as its first “chief of diversity and inclusion” a person who posted anti-Trump memes on his Facebook page, including one that compared the former president to Adolf Hitler. After his hire was announced, some of Torres-Estrada’s apparent social media posts began circulating. A Facebook account appearing to belong to Torres-Estrada posted on June 2, 2020: “Here I leave this and slowly retire (to continue working from home)…” along with a meme of then-President Donald Trump, holding up a bible in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church after Black Lives Matter protesters set...

An al Qaeda operative at Fort Bragg By JOHN SULLIVAN and JOSEPH NEFF Raleigh News & Observer November 13, 2001 FORT BRAGG, N.C. - A former sergeant at Fort Bragg who became a close adviser to Osama bin Laden obtained sensitive documents describing how U.S. special operations units function. Ali A. Mohamed, a trusted trainer in bin Laden's al Qaeda network, walked the halls of the U.S. military's top warfare planning center at Fort Bragg for more than two years as an Army sergeant. From 1987 to 1989, he acquired sensitive documents describing how special operations units work and a...

Peter Lance's new book, Triple Cross, (the complete title is: Triple Cross, How Bin Laden's Master Spy Penetrated the CIA, the Green Berets and the FBI -- And Why Patrick Fitzgerald Failed to Stop Him) is out in bookstores on 11/21/2006. This is a link to the Able Danger Blog's review of the book. Here is the text of the Harper Collins' press release for the book: TRIPLE CROSS How Bin Laden's Master Spy Penetrated the CIA, the Green Berets and the FBI -- And Why Patrick Fitzgerald Failed to Stop Him By Peter Lance In TRIPLE CROSS, five-time Emmy-award...

On Friday, the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) announced its first-ever chief diversity and inclusion officer, Richard Torres-Estrada, and the announcement prompted a backlash from social media users questioning the hiring decision.In an Instagram post, SOCOM said, “On Monday, March 1, 2021, USSOCOM welcomed its first-ever Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Mr. Richard Torres-Estrada. Mr. Torres-Estrada has nearly two decades worth of experience working diversity and inclusion programs and activities in federal agencies. Mr. Torres-Estrada’s arrival corresponds with the publication of the USSOCOM D&I Strategic Plan, which will guide the enterprise-wide effort to institutionalize and sustain D&I. We look forward...

With a small military training program, the United States military has joined efforts to fight a brutal insurgency that has devastated northern Mozambique. American Special Forces soldiers began training Mozambican troops this week as part of an effort to repel a spreading insurgency in northeastern Mozambique that American officials say is linked to the Islamic State. The insurgency, near some of the world’s biggest gas reserves, has killed at least 2,000 civilians and displaced another 670,000. The American program is modest in size and scope: a dozen Army Green Berets are to train Mozambican marines for the next two months....

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reported that a member of Canada’s elite special forces counterterrorism unit was wounded last fall when the handgun went off inexplicably during a training exercise at an Ottawa-area shooting range.

(starts in silence) Korean military drama of the relationship and conflicts between a Special Forces Captain and a medical doctor. Even though as an emergency physician, the doctor has to put her medicine above her relationships, she doesn't want a relationship with a Special Forces soldier that she can't rely will always be there for her.

Korean military drama (9.8/10) of the relationship between a Special Forces Captain and a medical doctor. The stars of this drama were actually married in real life for several years.

Peter McAleese was recruited by a rival Colombian cartel to take out Escobar.A new documentary about Pablo Escobar will focus on the Scottish mercenary hired to kill the world’s most notorious drug baron. Ex-SAS operative Peter McAleese was recruited by a rival Colombian cartel to take out Escobar in 1989. Now a documentary will tell the story in McAleese’s own words and will show never-seen-before footage of his mission – which was ultimately unsuccessful. Killing Escobar, produced by Glasgow-based Two Rivers Media and Salon Pictures, will also reveal how McAleese’s violent upbringing in Glasgow, SAS training and experience as a...