special operations warfare: Quick Facts

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Photos

U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command training mission

Russian Interior Ministry special forces (Spetsnaz) and a civilian volunteer searching for Islamist militants in a village in the southern Russian republic of Dagestan, 1999.

David Stirling and members of the Special Air Service

Members of Indonesia's Kopassus special forces command marching in Jakarta, 2012.

U.S. Navy SEALs water exercise

U.S. Navy SEALs

Afghanistan: U.S. Special Forces and Northern Alliance

U.S. special forces training members of Iraq's elite emergency-response police force, Baʿqūbah, Iraq, 2010.

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Key People

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Aaron Bank

American military officer

Louis IX of France (St. Louis), stained glass window of Louis IX during the Crusades. (Unknown location.)

World Wars