Joint Special Operations Command
Joint component command of the U.S. Special Operations Command
Follow Joint Special Operations Command on Notably News to receive short updates to your email — rarely!
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.