Oct. 5 national security roundup

National Security

• Three U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers were killed on Wednesday while conducting a patrol with Nigerien forces near the border with Mali. Another two soldiers were wounded and medevaced to Landstuhl, Germany. The fallen Green Berets are the first casualties in Niger since a 3rd Special Forces Group warrant officer was killed in a noncombat-related vehicle accident in February. The border region has been home to attacks by both Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Boko Haram terrorist groups.
• Russian FSB director Alexander Bortnikov states that an “almost defeated” Islamic State has “defined their global strategic objective as the creation of a new, worldwide terrorist network.” The FSB is the successor to the Soviet Union’s infamous KGB, of which Gen. Bortnikov is a former agent. Defense Secretary James Mattis has said that Islamic State forces in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) are “on the run,” their command and control capacity is “fractured,” and that the terrorist group’s “days are certainly numbered.”
• The Defense Department announced that Iraqi security forces have concluded a 14-day operation to liberate the former Islamic State stronghold of Hawija in a “swift and decisive victory,” reportedly capturing 1,000 ISIS fighters. Coalition forces have liberated 4 million Iraqis, and have reclaimed 160,000 square miles of former ISIS-held territory. Over 2 million Iraqi refugees that had fled ISIS have returned to their homes.
• Operation INHERENT RESOLVE officials state that American and coalition forces targeted ISIS positions and vehicles in 47 separate engagements yesterday in Iraq an Syria.

Culture War

• Senator Marco Rubio has called for the Secretary of the Army to revoke the commission of pro-communist 2nd Lt. Spenser Rapone, currently serving with the 10th Mountain Division, and to pursue all disciplinary options for his alleged violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Military History

• On this day in 1918, Sgt. Michael B. Ellis single-handedly attacked a German machine gun nest near Exermount, France, killing two enemy soldiers and capturing 17. He then moved on to capture 27 more enemy troops and six machine guns. Two captured officers coughed up the locations of four additional machine gun positions, and the “Sgt. York of St. Louis” took them as well. In addition to numerous valor medals from foreign countries, Ellis was awarded the Medal of Honor.