Bergen: War against ISIS goes global
A US National Counter Terrorism Center map from 2016 shows 18 countries with official branches of ISIS and an additional six countries where there are "aspiring branches" of the terror group. One of those official branches of ISIS is an offshoot of the notorious Nigerian terrorist group, Boko Haram, which operates not only in Nigeria but also in neighboring Niger, the country where the four US Army soldiers — two of them Green Berets — were killed on October 4. It's the increasingly globalized nature of ISIS and like-minded groups that is a key reason for the large number of countries around the globe where US Special Operations Forces are now deployed.According to a Pentagon press release from July, about 8,000 Special Operations Forces are deployed in 80 countries around the world.There are around 800 American soldiers now stationed in Niger, a number of whom are US Special Operations Forces, although their precise number isn't clear.President Obama — elected, in part, on h..
