Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force – North (CJSOTF–N), also known as Task Force Viking, was the U.S. joint task force responsible for the northern front during the initial period of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq (OIF Rotation I). It secured Kirkuk, Mosul, and the northern oil fields; prevented 13 Iraqi Army divisions from defending Baghdad or reinforcing defensive operations against American and British troops advancing in the south, and thwarted Turkish efforts to subvert Kurdistan.
Task Force Viking conducted artillery observer, direct action, special reconnaissance, and unconventional warfare missions in order to disrupt and fix Iraqi forces arrayed along the "Green Line", the nominal 1991 demarcation line between the Kurdish northern provinces of Iraq and the remainder controlled by Saddam Hussein.[1][2] The original campaign for northern Iraq and the Task Force were ended on 12 May 2003.
- ^ Briscoe, Capt. Charles H. (2006). All Roads Lead to Baghdad: Army Special Operations Forces in Iraq. USASOC History Office, Department of the Army. pp. 117. ISBN 978-0-16-075364-0.
- ^ McCool, John (2005). Interview with Major David Harris, USAF Archived 20 January 2013 at archive.today, Operational Leadership in the Global War on Terrorism. Combat Studies Institute, Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas.