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The U.S. Army published a Special Forces manual titled Counter-Insurgency Operations in 1960. The term was used by the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War and since the Autumn of 2004 has been used by them to describe ongoing operations in Iraq . As used by the U.S. Army, counter-insurgency operations include Psychological Warfare and Information Warfare aspects of such operations, which include direct interference in a country's Politics and Media or the spread of Disinformation (the civilian equivalent of Military Deception ) to maintain control of a population. CONTROVERSY Counter-insurgency tactics are often controversial, sometimes involving human rights abuses and violations of civil liberties, such as Internment , detention of familiy members of suspected insurgents as ''de facto'' Hostage s, extra-judicial killing of civilians and prisoners and Torture . Tactics similar to those of Guerrilla Warfare and Insurgency are sometimes used by the governments themselves, such as assassinations of suspected insurgents, extra-judicial executions of suspected insurgent sympathisers and irregular paramilitary operations by covert operatives who may not wear uniforms. In many conflicts, counter-insurgency operations can kill more civilians than the insurgents themselves. This may especially occur when the insurgents have a sizable support base among certain sectors of the civilian population (or among the population as a whole), or when certain regions are predominantly under their influence or control. Examples of this include the US Anti-insurgency Operation In Iraq , Israel i counter-insurgency during the occupations of the Gaza Strip , West Bank and Lebanon , Indian Army counter insurgency operations in Kashmir and North-Eastern states of India , many anti-British colonial uprisings, Contras in Nicaragua, the Caravan Of Death in Chile, and many of the different paramilitary groups (such as the AUC ) and death squads in Colombia . It could also be argued that in US President journal subsequently estimated 98,000 (8000-194000) civilians died as a result of the invasion and occupation of Iraq, and reported civilians deaths according to Iraq Body Count now exceed 25,000. Most (over a third) are attributed to US and allied forces, a similar amount to common criminals and only 9% to the insurgents. {Link without Title} . An exception to this rule appears to be the most recent 1970s-1998 Troubles in Northern Ireland, in which Provisional IRA guerrillas are said to have killed the most people, including the most civilians, when compared to the British security forces and Loyalist paramilitaries. Notable British counter-insurgency operations occurred during the difficult process of , the Aden Emergency , and the Mau-Mau Emergency . The U.S. military and allied South Vietnamese security forces conducted counter-insurgency operations against National Liberation Front guerrillas during the Vietnam War , including the notorious Phoenix Program which resulted in the killing of thousands of civilians accused of being NLF Sympathiser s or relatives of sympathisers. The U.S. , British and allied occupation forces and the Iraqi security forces are currently engaging in a counter-insurgency operation against Various Iraqi Guerrilla Groups opposed to the presence of foreign troops and the current elected Iraqi government. TACTICS Draining The Water The name of this tactic is taken from Mao Zedong 's advice to his guerrillas to "move through the people like a fish moves through water". It often involves the Relocation of the population ("water") to expose the guerrillas or Insurgent s ("fish"). In other words, relocation deprives the aforementioned of the support, cover, and resources of the local population. British forces were able to employ the relocation method with considerable success during the Malayan Emergency. The Briggs Plan , implemented fully in 1950, relocated Chinese Squatters into protected "New Villages", designated by British forces. By the end of 1951, some 400,000 Chinese had moved into the fortifications. Of this population, the British forces were able to form a "Home Guard", armed for resistance against the Malay Communist Party, an implementation mirrored by the Strategic Hamlet Program later used by U.S. forces in South Vietnam. Somewhat similar strategy was used extensively by U.S. forces in South Vietnam , initially by forcing the rural population into fenced camps, referred to as Strategic Hamlets, and later by bombing them with B-52s to remove the rest from their villages and farms. Widespread use was made of Chemical Herbicides , sprayed from airplanes, to destroy crops that might possibly have provided resources for NLF fighters and their human support base. COIN Aircraft Since the 1960s , a specialized form of Close Air Support has been developed for counter-insurgency operations. This covers a wide range of operations, from ground attack and observation to light transport and casualty evacuation. An aircraft used for counter-insurgency should ideally be able to perform all these roles. Such an aircraft should have low loitering speed, long endurance, simplicity in maintenance, and the capability to make short take-offs and landings from rough frontline airstrips. At first (particularly during the Vietnam War ) counter-insurgency missions were flown by existing airplanes and helicopters hastily adapted for the role, notably the Douglas A-1 Skyraider . Later, more specialized counter-insurgency (or COIN) aircraft began to appear, such as:
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