Grozny, Chechnya: Decemto February 6, 2000įallujah, Iraq: Novemto December 23, 2004 Grozny, Chechnya: Decemto February 8, 1995 Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina: Apto 29 February 29, 1996 Vukovar, Croatia: Augto November 18, 1991 Recent historical examples of city attacks in limited warfare where an attacking force attempted to kill the defenders or seize the city include: The city attack operation usually requires a penetration of enemy defenses. In simple terms, a city attack is a mission to either kill or capture all hostile forces (an enemy-based mission) in a city or to seize, secure, recapture, or liberate (a terrain-based mission) a city or portion of a city when the enemy is using it as a defensive zone. Such a planned operation would be doctrinally classified as a deliberate attack with one of five distinct forms of maneuver, such as penetration or envelopment. The city attack is a very specific type of military operation-although the phrase is not US military terminology. A military must approach a hostile urban environment with the assumption that threats can come from any direction or domain (to include from underground). A nonpermissive or hostile environment is one where the host government does not have the will or ability to help in a military operation, or lacks control of the territory or population. A permissive environment is one where host-nation security forces have control of the area, as well as the intent and capability to assist during military operations.
They can also vary greatly from permissive to nonpermissive. With respect to this last variable, urban environments can be extremely dense or relatively spread out. The scale could continue into humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, either as defense support to civil authorities domestically or as part of broader stability and security operations in cities around the world.Įach potential urban operation varies greatly from the others in terms of the political objective, military mission, constraints on military force, time, enemy, and especially environment. These usually involve intelligence-driven raids requiring speed, surprise, and highly specialized military units. Next would be very specific counterterrorist operations in urban areas. Next, would be counterinsurgency operations in urban environments where a major component of the mission is to separate a small insurgent or enemy force from the rest of the population that could number in the millions. This is where the Mosul battle falls on the spectrum.Īfter that would be major urban operations with limited objectives like regime change or eliminating an enemy capability coming from within an urban area, such as short-range rockets or cross-border tunneling operations. Sliding along the scale, next would come major city attacks during limited, non-nuclear conflict, where at least one combatant follows international humanitarian law and seeks to minimize the impact of the battle on protected populations and sites. In total war, tactical nuclear weapons and the complete destruction of cities through aerial bombardment are both possibilities. This is when two combatants, possibly near-peer militaries, wage war in urban terrain with little regard for any humanitarian laws of war or concerns about collateral damage. If one were to develop a scale of urban conflict, on one extreme end would be total war. Modern urban warfare can entail many types of missions along the spectrum of military operations.
In other words, the limitations characterizing the conduct of urban warfare must be overcome. This type of high-cost, high-risk operation-the city attack-will continue to increase in frequency unless the rules of modern urban warfare are addressed in a deliberate manner. The nine-month battle is reported to have killed over ten thousand civilians, caused an estimated two billion dollars in damage to the city, created ten million tons of debris, and displaced over 1.8 million of the city’s residents. The battle saw a force of over one hundred thousand attacking somewhere between five and twelve thousand enemy fighters defending the city. The operation was the largest conventional land battle since the attack on Baghdad during the US-led invasion in 2003 and one of the most destructive urban fights in modern history involving Western forces. From Octoto January 4, 2017, US-backed Iraqi security forces conducted a full-scale city attack to liberate Mosul from the Islamic State.
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