Operation Enduring Freedom – Trans Sahara (OEF-TS)
Operation Enduring Freedom – Trans Sahara (OEF-TS) is the US military component of the Trans-Sahara Counter Terrorism Initiative (TSCTI). EUCOM executes OEF-TS through a series of military-to-military engagements and exercises designed to strengthen the ability of regional governments to police the large expanses of remote terrain in the trans-Sahara.
The Defense Department would continue to focus on military operations, expanding its scope from the company to the battalion level, and other US government agencies would be involved in the program. The US Agency for International Development, for example, would address educational initiatives; the State Department, airport security; and the Department of Treasury, efforts to tighten up money-handling controls in the region.
EUCOM directs SOCEUR to develop and maintain a flexible, enduring GWOT Coalition, as well as regional, operationally-focused partnerships to support specific GWOT operations and, develop an operational reach that enables the ability to detect, exploit, deter, seize, defeat, or destroy targets throughout the AOR. SOCEUR will accomplish this through two lines of operation:
- The Unconventional Warfare line of operation (the main effort) is an indirect approach to achieving the strategic goal by conducting a broad spectrum of military and paramilitary operations of longer duration, predominantly conducted through, with, or by indigenous and/or surrogate forces.
- The Deliberate Engagement line of operation is a direct approach to achieving the strategic goal primarily through the time sensitive planning and targeting process to conduct short-duration strikes against terrorist targets or networks, crisis response to humanitarian disasters, or NEOs to protect U.S. citizens and interests.
Key Tasks
- Enable other countries to effectively combat terrorists in their region.
- Improve partner nation capabilities to support GWOT-related coalition operations.
- Deny safe havens to terrorists in the EUCOM AOR.
- Assure Access throughout the AOR for basing and logistics to support operations.
- Find Al-Qaeda and other terrorists, their networks, and potential safe havens.
- Capture or kill known terrorists in the EUCOM AOR.
- Neutralize known terrorist networks operating in the EUCOM AOR.
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Main Effort:
By arranging operations sequentially beginning with Trans-Sahara Africa as the main effort, SOCEUR will sequence cycles to drive the terrorist threat south and east, away from the continent of Europe, displacing terrorist networks from their indigenous habitat while isolating terrorist operations in the Arabian Gulf Region from expanding westward into the EUCOM AOR.
The elimination of trans-national terrorist organizations and a progressive elimination of conditions conducive to terrorist infrastructure and activities. Trans-national terrorists will be forced to coordinate new lines of operation through the denial of existing havens, lines of communication, sources of support, and the pacification of terrorist sympathies within the region exposing themselves to detection and exploitation.
Partner Nations exercise sovereignty over previously undergoverned spaces with minimal outside support. SOCEUR transfers responsibility for existing safe havens to allies while refocusing on emerging threat regions.
Concentrating SOCEUR forces by applying pressure on the five geographical leverage points over time will expand the spheres of influence of US partner nations, enhancing regional sovereignty. This expansion will consequently force terror networks to develop new methods of operation in less contested areas.
The expanding spheres of influence of US regional partners will allow the reduction of the US forces footprint while maintaining U.S. presence and commitment and expanding US influence in the EUCOM AOR. By developing extrinsic partner relationships with our regional, intrinsic partners early in this process, USEUCOM will be positioned to continue influencing training, advice, and assistance as U.S. SOF pursue retreating terror networks through subsequent focus areas.
Some of the governments have embraced counterterrorism as a means of suppressing legitimate dissent and Islamic groups. Chad's leaders assert that the transnational networks of anti-Western Islamic extremists feared by America are not their main problem. Rather, they cite foreign-backed rebels as their main terrorist threat. They believe that Sudan and other countries are supporting a group of about 4,000 anti-government rebels near Chad's eastern border with Darfur.
