It’s not part of Islamic State’s broader strategy to expand all over the world and conduct global operations but their presence is growing rapidly in West, East and North Africa, says Na’eem Jeena, director of the Afro-Middle East Centre, according to a CCTV video.

“They’re very opportunistic in particular areas because of local circumstances,” Jeena said. “Egypt and Libya are good examples.”

In East Africa, Jeena said al Shabaab is formally affiliated with al Quaeda despite pressure from within to go with Islamic State.

In West Africa, Nigeria is having some success against Boko Haram but will unlikely eradicate the terror group from Nigeria by the end of the year.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the Russian plane crash. Libya is experiencing a whole different set of circumstances.

For years, author Nick Turse has been tracking the expansion of the U.S. military for the website TomDispatch and others. His latest book, “Tomorrow’s Battlefield” focuses on Africa, a U.S. military battlefield that he says often goes unnoticed, according to DemocarcyNow.

Since 2007, the U.S. has operated AFRICOM, the U.S. Africa Command in Djibouti. The U.S. claims that AFRICOM leaves a “small footprint” on the continent, with just one official base. Turse argues that the U.S. military is now involved in more than 90 percent of Africa’s 54 countries.

The U.S. conducts construction, military exercises, advisory assignments, security cooperation, and training missions, Turse said. AFRICOM carried out 674 missions across Africa in 2014—an average of almost two a day — 300 percent more than previous years.

In a DemocracyNow interview, Turse talked about an exponential increase in U.S. operations in Africa. These include night raids in Libya and Somalia and a drone campaign from “a proliferation of drone bases now that dot the African continent,” he said.

“There’s a shadow war that’s going on in Somalia. And we also see it elsewhere. There’s just been an announcement of a new drone base being set up in Cameroon to go after militants from Boko Haram, because that force is also spreading across the continent. And the U.S. has seen this, I think, as, in many ways, a growth area for special ops and for U.S. military missions writ large.”