Iraqi Special Operations Forces

Commandos from the Thunderbolt wing during a military exercise in the late 1960s.

Special operations troops of the Iraqi Army were first established when Colonel Khalil Dabbagh built the first royal special units in the name of "Queen Alia Forces" in the mid-1950s. It consisted of Sunni and Shia Arabs, as well as other components of the Iraqi population. They were mainly used on an emergency basis to carry out special missions inside of Iraq and outside when the country was at war.

The 65th Special Forces Brigade, 66th Special Forces Brigade, 68th Special Forces Brigade, and 440th Marine Brigade were active during the Persian Gulf War.[3]

Official ISOF logo from 1980-2003. Currently serves as the official logo of the 3rd Battalion.

After the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, the Saddam Hussein-era Iraqi Army was disbanded by the occupation authorities. Because of that, the current Iraqi commando force was recruited from scratch, mostly from Shia, Sunni Arabs, Kurds, Assyrians and Turkmen.[4] In November 2005, after training in Jordan with Jordanian Special Forces and U.S. Army Special Forces ("Green Berets"), the Iraqi Special Operations Force had 1,440 men trained, composed of two combat battalions, considered equal in training and combat effectiveness to an average U.S. Army infantry battalion, and two support battalions.[5] By March 2008, the force consisted of a single brigade which in turn was made up of an Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Force (ICTF) battalion, three Commando battalions, a support battalion and a special reconnaissance unit.[6]

On April 18, 2010, ISOF troops, supported by U.S. troops, carried out a night-time raid on a terrorist safe house near Tikrit. The ISOF surrounded the building and called on them to surrender, but instead the terrorists fired on them. The ISOF returned fire and assaulted the building. The ISOF killed Abu Ayyub al-Masri and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the leaders of the Islamic State of Iraq, 16 others were also arrested.[7][8][9]

In the Battle of Mosul that began in October 2016, the special ops forces were the first division into the city of Mosul, which had been occupied by Islamic State since 2014.[10] After the fall of Mosul, the ISOF battalions increasingly took up an infantry role the Iraqi army and militias weren't able to provide during operations, a role the unit was unfamiliar with for most of the war against terror. This resulted in a greater number of casualties than in previous operations, which were smaller in scale and shorter in duration.

On 1 November 2016, the 1st Iraqi Special Forces Brigade fought its way into the Gogjali quarter of the city, becoming the first Iraqi unit to enter the city during the offensive.[11] On 10 July 2017, the Iraqi prime minister declared the liberation of Mosul from ISIS.[12] By the end of the battle, CTS forces suffered a 40 percent casualty rate.[13]

ISOF during training in 2020 Babylon.

ISOF operators during training.

ISOF

1st Special Operations Brigade (ISOF-1) - based in Baghdad often referred to as the Golden Division, previously the Golden Brigade.[14]

• 1st Battalion (Commando) - former 36th Battalion
• 2nd Battalion (ICTF)
• 3rd Battalion (Support)
• 5th Battalion (Recon)

2nd Special Operations Brigade (ISOF-2) with units in Mosul, Karbala, Diyala and Al Asad

• 6th Regional Commando Battalion
• 7th Regional Commando Battalion
• 8th Regional Commando Battalion
• 9th Regional Commando Battalion

3rd Special Operations Brigade (ISOF-3) was established in Basra by spring 2013, following an order by the prime minister in January 2012 that the forces expand by an additional brigade. It consisted of regional commando battalions in Basra, Babylon, Najaf, Maysan, Dhi Qar and Muthanna provinces, a recon battalion, and a support battalion.[15] A Special Tactics unit is also maintained.[16]

• 10th Regional Commando Battalion
• 20th Regional Commando Battalion
• 36th Regional Commando Battalion
• 45th Regional Commando Battalion

Academia (formerly 4th battalion, 1st ISOF brigade). It is responsible for screening and training of new recruits for Counter-Terrorism Command (CTC).[17]