Spotlight on Middle East special operators as conflict embroils region.

• Author: Insinna, Valerie

* Islamic State terrorists in June 2014 seized the strategically important city of Tikrit, Iraq, in a major win for the insurgent group. Tikrit lies in between Baghdad and Mosul--the nation's second largest city, which is also under ISIL control--and is perhaps most notorious for being the birthplace of Saddam Hussein.

When coalition forces mounted an offensive to retake Tikrit in March, it was Iraqi special operators that led ground forces into the city after U.S. and Iraqi airstrikes decimated ISIL strongholds.

The Middle East is besieged by conflict, ranging from the advance of the brutal Islamic State to the near-takeover of Yemen by Iranian-backed Houthi militants. With many countries in the region worried about insurgents and terror groups, it's common sense that countries there will seek to boost their special operations forces with new equipment, said Brad Curran, a senior industry analyst with the Frost & Sullivan Aerospace and Defense Practice. SOF may be countries' best bet to take on those threats.

"They want a small footprint," he told National Defense. "They want to keep things as quiet as possible and find things early and take out specific people or groups before problems get worse."

Regional special operations forces are becoming more relevant as the nature of warfare changes, said Steven Bucci, director of the Heritage Foundation's Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign and National Security Policy and a former Army Special Forces officer.

"The threats are not going to be some other country's tanks rolling across your borders and divisional-size attacks, but are more likely to be threats from terrorists or small units from another country acting like terrorists," Bucci said. "And the best people to hunt folks like that are SOF guys."

For Middle Eastern nations--many of which are flush with cash to spend on military gear--the key is the training and experience of such a force, he said. "In my experience, both having worked with a lot of them and watching others, they're usually pretty good."

Egypt, Israel and Jordan all have excellent special operations forces comprising the best personnel those militaries have to offer, he said. Special operators in Iraq spent the longest time training with U.S. forces and, unlike other parts of the Iraqi military, have not been corrupted by the cronyism rampant under former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki's administration.

Some SOF organizations are more competent than others...