U.S. marines operate across African Sahel region

The Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force are deployed across the Trans-Sahel region of Africa. Al-Qaeda linked groups operate in the area. The area stretches across the north of the continent along the Sahara.

The 180 members of the group operate in teams of 15 to 20 each. Their main function is not to engage in battle but to train local militaries. The exact locations of the missions is not usually revealed because many countries are sensitive about such relations.

However the group does operate in Djibouti where the group helped the country's armed forces prepare Humvees to deploy to Somalia to fight Al-Shabaab. The U.S. is obviously training proxies to do their fighting for them.

Another SPMAGTF group operates in Eastern Europe in countries such as Bulgaria, Romania and Georgia. For more see this article.