Romanian Special Forces - BSIJ
Brigada Specială de Intervenţie a Jandarmeriei (Gendarmerie Special Intervention Brigade, BSIJ) is a special operations force belonging to the Romanian Gendarmerie. The unit carries the name "Vlad Ţepeş" after the legendary Romanian ruler, "Vlad the Impaler".
The Special Intervention Battalion performs special police operations, both nationwide as well as abroad (most notably in Kosovo), and has been called to ensure protection during arrests of organized crime elements or other sensitive operations.
The Romanian Jandarmery is responsible with anti-terrorist protection of the country's strategic areas. As the top unit of the Jandarmery, members of the special intervention battalion are used to guard Romania's mountain passages, dams, vital railroad links, as well as oil pipelines, gas pipelines, refineries and indeed, the Cernavoda nuclear powerplant itself.
The Romanian Jandarmery has a few hundreds of employees performing missions abroad at any one time. In the past 5 years or so, that number ranged between 200 and 300. One of the areas in which they are present is Kosovo, although we should also mention Bosnia-Herzegovina, Albania, Macedonia, Iraq, and some African countries.
The Brigade is divided in three units:
1st Battalion "Antiterorist si Actiuni speciale" (Special Actions and Counter-terrorism)
2nd Battalion "Misiuni Speciale" (Special Missions)
3rd Two Detachements " Misiuni Internationale" (External Missions)