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Urban warfare is modern warfare conducted in urban areas such as towns and cities. As a distinction, warfare conducted in population centres before the 20th century is generally considered siege warfare.

Urban combat is very different from combat in the open at both the operational and tactical level. A complicating factor of urban warfare is the presence of large concentrations of civilians, either innocent bystanders or sometimes as combatants ranging from armed militias and gangs to individuals defending their homes. Tactics are complicated by a three-dimensional environment, limited fields of view and fire because of buildings, enhanced concealment and cover for defenders, below ground infrastructure, and the ease of placement of booby traps and snipers.

__TOC__ The United States military term for urban warfare is MOUT, an abbreviation for Military Operations on Urban Terrain. The British military term is FIBUA (Fighting in Built-Up Areas), although it has been called OBUA (Operations in Built-Up Areas) and, unofficially, FISH (Fighting in Someone's House). The term FOFO (Fighting in Fortified Objectives) refers to clearing enemy personnel from narrow and entrenched places like bunkers, trenches and strongholds; the dismantling of mines and wires; and the securing of footholds in enemy areas.

Operations

Traditional World War II military operations often relied on large quantities of artillery fire. This was often not possible in urban settings, however. For example, large scale Canadian operations in both Ortona and Groningen avoided the use of artillery altogether to spare civilians.canadiansoldiers.com. See also Stacey, C.P. Official History of the Canadian Army in the Second World War Volume III: The Victory Campaign: The Operations in North West Europe 1944-1945 who wrote "In spite of the severe fighting...great crowds of (Dutch) civilians thronged the streets (of Groningen) - - apparently more excited than frightened by the sound of nearby rifle and machine-gun fire. Out of regard for these civilians, the Canadians did not shell or bomb the city, thereby accepting the possibility of delay and additional casualties."

In more recent times, modern armies are bound by law to avoid the indiscriminate use of artillery in cities as a way of reducing civilian casualties. This law has not always been followed, for example the Russian attack on Grozny, in which large amounts of artillery fire were used. The Russian Army handled the issue of civilian casualities by warning that the city would be levelled and that any civilian should leave the city before the attack began.

Fighting in an urban landscape can offer some advantages to a weaker defending force. The attacking army must account for three-dimensions more often than two, and consequently expend greater amounts of manpower in order to secure a myriad of structures if they don't resort to indiscriminately bombing them. It is also difficult to bomb underground or heavily fortified structures such as bunkers or underground rapid transit tunnels.

International law also prohibits the use of heavy firepower and indiscriminate bombing in civilian-populated settings. Thus, defenders barricaded in a city will not have to face carpet bombing, heavy artillery and massive tank assault if it faces an army that cares to operate in a legal manner. Even in a situation where the attacker has no such qualms, such as the Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War, such actions can spark more resistance and insurgency than there would be without such attacks. In some circumstances, (for example, using a city as winter lodgements, a supply centre, a leave facility, or utilizing any port and dock facilities), destroying the city would be counter-productive. To deny these advantages to an attacker, defenders may raze cities about to fall as a defensive strategy (historically, this has been known as a component of a "scorched earth policy".)

Tactics

The characteristics of an average city include tall buildings, narrow alleys, sewage tunnels and possibly a subway system. The buildings can provide excellent sniping posts while alleys and rubble-filled streets are ideal for planting booby traps. Defenders can move from one part of the city to another undetected using underground tunnels and spring ambushes. Meanwhile, the attackers tend to become more exposed than the defender as they must use the open streets more often, unfamiliar with the defenders' secret and hidden routes. During a house to house search the attacker is often also exposed on the streets. Usually, defenders will only use urban warfare as a last resort, and generally try to fight the enemy away from major population centres. Urban warfare threatens the civilian population, industry, and infrastructure, of which the purpose of a defensive army is to generally protect. Urban warfare is generally forced upon the weaker side of a conflict that desperately needs defensibility, risking the destruction if the defensive forces were deployed elsewhere.

Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq most casualties on the side of the United States military there have been in urban or sub-urban settings, despite the fact that the United States forces suffered very few casualties during the initial invasion. This demonstrates the difficulty even the best-equipped armies can face when forced to fight in close quarters.

The Israeli Defence Forces developed special tactics of MOUT, resulting in very low casualties to the occupying force (about 250 soldiers in 4 years of fighting). These tactics include:

  • Non linear advance of forces, swarming the AO (area of operations) from all directions.
  • Use of tanks and heavily-protected APCs to mobilize troops and protect them from enemy's fire.
  • Use of armored bulldozers to:
    1. clear path to friendly forces: both vehicles and infantry.
    2. safely detonate booby traps and IEDs.
    3. to battle gunmen barricading in rigged buildings.
    4. destroy or create ground obstacles.
  • Use of superior Close-quarters-combat (CQB) technologies such as advanced red-dot sights, night vision devices, body armor and advanced C4IS systems.
  • Use of UAVs to provide intelligence and full battle picture.
  • Use of helicopter gunships to target specific threats such as rocket launchers and RPG squads.
  • Razing of large swaths of urban areas, thus levelling the battlefield
  • Elimination of terrorist leaders and sympathisers before they can engage in urban warfare

Close quarters battle

The term close quarter battle refers to fighting methods within buildings, streets, narrow alleys and other places where visibility and maneuverability are limited.

Both CQB and MOUT are related to urban warfare, but while MOUT refers mainly to the macromanagement factor (i.e. sending troops, using of heavy armoured fighting vehicles, battle management), CQB refers to the micromanagement factor—namely: how a small squad of infantry troops should fight in urban environments and/or inside buildings in order to achieve its goals with minimal casualties.

As a doctrine, CQB concerns topics such as:

It should be noted that military CQB doctrine is different from police CQB doctrine, mainly because the military usually operates in hostile areas while the police operates within friendly populations.

Armies that often engage in urban warfare operations may train most of their infantry in CQB doctrine.

Famous urban battles in modern times

See also

Footnotes

External links

Urban warfare

Häuserkampf (Militär) | לוחמה בשטח בנוי | 市街戦 | Urbano bojevanje | SIBO | CQB

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Urban warfare".

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