List of operations conducted by Delta Force
[citation needed] On 29 July 1984, after Venezuelan Aeropostal Flight 252 departed from Caracas in Venezuela, it was hijacked by two men and forced to land on the island of Curaçao which is part of the Netherlands Antilles.
[6][4][5] Delta planned an operation for three teams to go into Beirut, Lebanon, to rescue Westerners held by Hezbollah, but the action was terminated when negotiations appeared to promise to deliver the hostages in exchange for arms.
In 1999, writer Mark Bowden published the book Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War, which chronicles the events that surrounded 3 October 1993 Battle of Mogadishu.
Delta Force took part in Operation Uphold Democracy in Haiti; their known role was to serve as bodyguards for visiting UN officials and diplomats, working together with the Polish counter-terrorist unit GROM.
[citation needed] Under diplomatic cover, Delta Force, along with its naval counterpart, DEVGRU, also protect the president when he is in countries that are experiencing violence and unrest, and where the United States Secret Service's capabilities are limited.
In the planning phase of the operation, the commander of Delta Force, LTC Pete Blaber, ruled out any helicopter infiltration of AFOs into the area so as not to alert the terrorists in the valley.
During the night of July 20, 2011, information provided by a high valued detainee alleged that there was a foreign fighter staging area in southeast Paktika Province that was facilitated by the Haqqani Network, A squadron supported by Rangers and Afghan SOF elements were inserted by the 160th SOAR into the mountainous region of Sar Rowzah District.
As part of Task Force 20, their formal role was to conduct selected high-priority Site Exploitation on suspected chemical weapon facilities before heading for the Haditha Dam complex.
Along the way, Delta supported the seizure of H-3 Air Base and also conducted numerous deception operations to confuse the Iraqis as to the disposition of Coalition forces in the west.
[27] On 24 March 2003, Delta Force reconnaissance operators drove through Iraqi lines around the Haditha Dam on customized All-terrain vehicles, marking targets for Coalition airstrikes.
[27] On April 1, C squadron, Delta Force and 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment conducted a successful night-time ground assault in their Pinzgauers and GMVs against the Haditha Dam complex.
[28] On April 2, Delta units were engaged by half a dozen armed technicals from the same anti-special forces Fedayeen that had previously fought the Special Boat Service.
Two Delta operators were wounded (one seriously), and the squadron requested an urgent aero medical evacuation and immediate close-air support as a company of truck-borne Iraqi reinforcements arrived to bolster the fedayeen assault.
Two MH-60K Blackhawks carrying a para-jumper medical team and two MH-60L DAPs of the 160th SOAR responded and engaged the Iraqis, which allowed the Delta operators to move their casualties to an emergency helicopter landing zone, after which they were medevaced to H-1, escorted by a pair of A-10As.
[34] On October 31, 2003, Delta Force assisted A Squadron, SAS, in Operation Abalone: US intelligence had traced a Sudanese jihadist – who was believed to be facilitating the arrival of Islamist terrorists into Iraq – to four compounds/dwellings on the outskirts of Ramadi.
A platoon of M2A3 Bradley IFVs subsequently "pummeled" the house with gunfire, and Delta Force units then assaulted the building, killing several terrorists inside, and helping to bring the operation to a successful conclusion.
In late April 2004, just prior to the total withdrawal from the city, a small Delta Force element was co-located with a Marine platoon manning a pair of houses they were using as an observation post.
[47] On September 7, 2005, after intelligence was obtained from a detainee interrogation, a Delta Force assault team landed in MH-6 Little Bird helicopters at an isolated farmhouse outside Baghdad and searched the building.
[57] In November 2006, an AH-6M Little Bird was brought down by an RPG striking its tail rotor whilst escorting a 20-man Delta assault helicopter force in 2 MH-6s and 2 MH-60Ls on their way to a time-sensitive daylight raid to target a foreign fighter facilitator, and both crewmen were injured.
On January 11, 2007, following human intelligence received by the CIA at its Kurdish station, Delta Force operatives raided the Iranian Liaison Office (effectively Iran's embassy in the region) in Irbil.
Delta operators in civilian clothing then disembarked their vehicles, disarmed, cuffed and hooded al-Liby, and drove him to an undisclosed Libyan military base, where they were flown to a US Navy warship in the Mediterranean sea.
[69] The Delta Force team was most likely accompanied by a small contingent of elite Intelligence Support Activity operators, who tracked Ahmed Abu Khattala, by SIGINT and HUMINT capability on a consistent basis.
[72] On 4 July 2014, two dozen Delta Force operators, along with SIGINT and assault elements from the Intelligence Support Activity, were inserted via 160th SOAR into northern Syria, in an attempt to find captured journalist James Foley and other American hostages.
In order to try and catch a track from the SSE of other "dry holes" that may not have yielded much, the primary focus, had to take a back seat, gratefully, to the very least, more than a hundred ISIS fighters, as well as IRGC-influenced proxies in various ACMs (Anti-Coalition Militias) were taken off the battlefield permanently.
From everything from targeted strikes by Delta to armed ISR and AC-130s, the CENTCOM SOF made short work of the visible ISIL positions (but only the ones they were cleared to hit, said anonymous insiders who believed and still do, that ISIS could have been nearly 70% wiped out in their part of that battlespace) and still are from their bases in nearby countries like Jordan who are not sending their Special Operations in to not be heavy-handed.
Sayyaf was killed after his on-site security personnel engaged in a firefight with U.S assault elements converging on the location from the landing zone, while the V-22 Ospreys and other aircraft stood by.
On 8 January 2017, US special operations forces reportedly from Delta carried out a raid in Syria against leaders of the ISIS group in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor.
Delta inserted via helicopter and spent roughly 90 minutes on the ground near Deir al-Zour – about 80 miles from ISIL's so-called capital in Raqqa – before witnesses say they left carrying captured ISIS fighters and bodies.
[84] The raid was launched based on a CIA Special Activities Center intelligence collection and close target reconnaissance effort that located the leader of ISIS.
Launched after midnight local time, the eight helicopters carrying the teams along with support aircraft crossed hundreds of miles of airspace controlled by Iraq, Turkey and Russia.
