The Military Is Finally Providing A Permanent Special Ops Team For AFRICOM
Ever since the Benghazi debacle, a chorus of voices has been howling about use of Special Forces, among other options, to stem the attack.
The nearest group of operators though was in Croatia and had quickly bounced to an airstrip in Sicily, but was too far away to respond as quickly as some thought the situation warranted. Now United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) will get its own operators, called a CIF, or commander’s in-extremis force, to deploy in the Africa area of operations, reports Defense News.
Until this point, AFRICOM was the only major American command that did not have its own group of special operators.
From the Defense News report:
The commander’s in-extremis force (CIF) was stood up on Oct. 1, AFRICOM chief Gen. Carter Ham revealed during a talk at George Washington University’s Homeland Security Policy Institute on Dec. 3.
This interesting piece of information indicates, judging on the nature of military bureaucracy, that the order was given to stand up this CIF long before Benghazi ever happened. Though to assume it was because of Benghazi that the unit stood up is purely speculation.
Ham avoided all mention of Benghazi during his talk, focusing instead to brief the attendance on growing threats in other parts of the continent, like Mali.
Unrest has grown throughout the entire continent, and has been of growing focus for both China and the U.S.
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