Joint Special Operations Command

Joint component command of the U.S. Special Operations Command

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August 10 2022 Vice Admiral Frank M. Bradley takes command of JSOC, becoming the incumbent commander, replacing Lieutenant General Bryan P. Fenton.
February 3 2022 JSOC conducted a raid in Atme, Syria, killing ISIS's second leader, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi. The operation involved evacuating 10 civilians before al-Qurashi detonated a bomb, killing himself and 12 others. U.S. forces subsequently engaged and killed a deputy of al-Qurashi in a subsequent shootout. The raid lasted nearly two hours with no U.S. casualties.
July 2021 Lieutenant General Bryan P. Fenton assumes command of JSOC, succeeding Lieutenant General Scott A. Howell.
October 26 2019 Joint Special Operations Command's Delta Force conducted a raid in Idlib province, Syria, resulting in the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The complex two-hour operation involved eight helicopters crossing multiple countries' airspace. Al-Baghdadi ultimately committed suicide in a tunnel, killing himself and three of his children.
September 2 2018 Lieutenant General Scott A. Howell becomes the JSOC commander, replacing Lieutenant General Austin S. Miller.
March 30 2016 Lieutenant General Austin S. Miller takes command of JSOC, succeeding Lieutenant General Raymond A. Thomas III.
March 25 2016 Special Operations Forces in Syria killed ISIL commander Abu Ala al-Afri during Operation Inherent Resolve.
July 29 2014 Lieutenant General Raymond A. Thomas III assumes command of JSOC, replacing Lieutenant General Joseph Votel.
December 2013 JSOC conducted a drone strike at a wedding ceremony in Yemen that killed numerous civilians, leading to a ban on military drone operations by the Yemen government.
October 28 2013 JSOC conducted a drone strike near Jilib in Lower Shabelle, killing two senior Somali members of Al-Shabaab, including Ibrahim Ali, an explosives specialist. This was the first known American lethal operation since the White House's policy announcement on targeted killings.
2011 A career posting referred to the Army Rangers' Regimental Reconnaissance Company (RRC) as a Special Mission Unit (SMU), indicating a potential expansion or recognition of the unit's specialized capabilities within JSOC.
September 30 2011 JSOC directed an air attack that killed Anwar al-Awlaki, a Yemeni-American al-Qaeda cleric, using armed drones from a secret American base in the Arabian Peninsula. Samir Khan, a Pakistani-American al-Qaeda magazine editor, was also killed in the strike.
June 2011 Lieutenant General Joseph Votel becomes the JSOC commander, succeeding Vice Admiral William H. McRaven.
May 1 2011 JSOC coordinated Operation Neptune Spear, successfully killing Osama bin Laden in a targeted operation.
2010 JSOC conducted a controversial raid in Gardez, Afghanistan, resulting in the deaths of a U.S.-trained police commander, another man, and three women (two of whom were pregnant). After the incident, then-JSOC commander William McRaven visited the affected family, offered a sheep as restitution, and personally apologized.

This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia article Joint Special Operations Command, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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