Task Force 6-26

Task Force 6-26 is a United States Joint military/Government Agency unit; originally set-up to find "High Value Targets (HVT's) in Iraq in the aftermath of Operation Iraqi Freedom.cite journal| first=Eric| last=Schmitt| coauthors=Carolyn Marshall| url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/19/international/middleeast/19abuse.html| title=Task Force 6-26: In Secret Unit's 'Black Room,' a Grim Portrait of U.S. Abuse| journal=New York Times| month=19 March| year=2006] This Special Operation unit is very similar to Task Force 121 which was created to capture Saddam Hussein and high rank Al Qaeda members. The name keeps changing for Operational Security reasons. The main objective of Task Force 6-26 was the capture or liquidation of terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who led Al Qaeda in Iraq. The unit is made up of U.S. Special Operations Forces members including the United States Navy SEALs, Delta, DEVGRU and the 75th Ranger Regiment along with the CIA's Special Activities Division. Other military and DIA personnel are believed to have been involved as 'limited' members of the unit, along with FBI agents.

Members of 6-26 had fanned out in areas ranging from Baghdad to Fallujah and other areas in the contested al Anbar province in search of al-Zarqawi, and have been very successful in eliminating many leaders of his group, and killing al-Zarqawi June 7 2006.

The unit operated an interrogation cell at Camp Nama, one of Saddam Hussein's former military bases near Baghdad. There, American soldiers made one of the former Iraqi government's interrogation facilities into one of their own, calling it "The Black Room." In 2004 it was reported that the force was running a secret prison in Baghdad and abusing prisoners; the unit was implicated in two prisoner deaths. The unit has been under investigation since at least 2003, but prosecution has been elusive, as members of the unit used false identities and claimed to have lost 70 percent of their records due to a computer malfunction. The other primary name for the Task Force has been OCF, or Other Coalition Forces. In both cases the unit has command infrastructure in both theaters of war at an MSS(Mission Staging Site)in Baghdad Iraq and at OCF compound at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan.

See also

* Task Force 121
* Task Force 145

References

*cite journal| first=Barton| last=Gellman| coauthors=R. Jeffrey Smith| url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45373-2004Dec7.html| title=Report to Defense Alleged Abuse By Prison Interrogation Teams| journal=Washington Post| month=8 December| year=2004| pages=A1