1st SFOD-Delta: US Army 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta, “Delta Force” counterterrorist unit
22 Special Air Service: British Army 22nd Special Air Service Regiment
AQI: al-Qaeda in Iraq
ASL: above sea level
CANSOFCOM: Canadian Special Operations Command
CENTCOM: US Department of Defense Central Command
CIA: Central Intelligence Agency
CJTF-OIR: Combined Joint Task Force–Operation Inherent Resolve
CAOC: Combined Air Operations Center (al-Udeid Air Base, Qatar)
CSAR: combat search and rescue
CTB-71: Jordan’s counterterrorist battalion
CTD: the General Intelligence Directorate Counterterrorism Division
Da’esh: the colloquial and derogatory Arabic name for ISIL/ISIS (the Islamic State)
DEVGRU: Naval Special Warfare Development Group, SEAL Team SIX counterterrorist unit
DIA: Defense Intelligence Agency
DGSE: the Directorate-General for External Security, France’s international espionage service
ELINT: electronic intelligence
FSA: Free Syrian Army
GID: General Intelligence Department
GIGN: Groupe d’intervention de la Gendarmerie nationale, France’s counterterrorism unit
HMMWV: High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, a Humvee
HUMINT: human intelligence
IED: improvised explosive device
ICRC: International Red Cross and Crescent Movement
ISIL/ISIS: Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant / Islamic State in Iraq and Syria
JAF: Jordanian Armed Forces
JSOC: US Joint Special Operations Command
JTF-2: Canada’s Joint Task Force 2 counterterrorist unit
MI6: Military Intelligence Section 6, the UK’s foreign intelligence service; also known as SIS, or the Secret Intelligence Service
MIT: Millî Îstihbarat Tesşkilatı, the Turkish national intelligence service
MRAP: Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected armored vehicles
NSA: National Security Agency
PHOTINT: photo intelligence
RJAF: Royal Jordanian Air Force
RJSOCOM: Royal Jordanian Special Operations Command
ROEs: rules of engagement
SCIF: Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility
SDF: Syrian Democratic Forces
SIGINT: signal intelligence
TDY: temporary duty assignment
TTIC: CIA Terrorist Threat Integration Center
UNHCR: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
USSOCOM: United States Special Operations Command
XO: executive officer, second-in-command
YPG: People’s Protection Units, the Syrian Kurdish militia making up much of the Syrian Democratic Forces pro-Western militia