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Urban warfare is Warfare conducted in populated Urban Area s such as Town s and Cities . The U.S. Military term is '''MOUT''', or (Military Operations on Urban Terrain). The British Military term used to be '''FIBUA''' (Fighting in Built-Up Areas), but is now '''OBUA''' (Operations in Built Up Areas) Warfare inside a city is very different from a traditional open-field battle against a conventional army. A complicating factor of urban warfare is the presence of Civilian s, sometimes as combatants of various sorts, ranging from armed Militia s and Gangs to people defending their homes against all comers, usually with many innocent non-combatants trying to stay out of the way of the battling forces. The military operations are also complicated by limited Fields Of View and fire because of buildings, large amounts of concealment and cover for defenders and the ease of placement of Booby Trap s and Sniper s. This brought a new force into military tactics. TACTICS Traditional World War II military operations often relied on large quantities of Artillery fire, which many modern armies will try to avoid as a way of reducing Civilian Casualties . A notable exception to this was the Russia n 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 the weaker faction in a war against a stronger foe. This is due to several reasons: #A populated city is much harder to conquer than an open field. This is because an invading force must expend massive amounts of manpower to secure a myriad of structures without indiscriminately bombing them. #The urbanized city is much easier to defend because it has many tall buildings, narrow alleys and Sewage tunnels. The buildings can provide excellent sniping posts while the alleys are ideal for planting booby traps. # International Law prohibits the use of heavy firepower and indiscriminate bombing in civilian-populated settings. Thus, the party barricading in a city will not have to face warplanes, Heavy Artillery and massive Tank assault if it faces an army that cares to operate in a legal manner. Nevertheless few would deliberately "choose" urban warfare: after all, the purpose of having an army is to prevent damages to one's own civilian population and infrastructure. It is always forced upon the weaker side of a conflict, and the best it can hope for is to make a virtue out of a necessity. soldiers assault a fortified house in Downtown Warsaw during the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 ]] Since the 2003 Invasion Of Iraq most US casualties there have been in urban or sub-urban settings, despite the fact that the U.S. 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:
CQB fight in the city of Fallujah during Operation Al Fajr (New Dawn) in November 2004.]] See Also: CQB CQB, and '''CQC''', are acronyms for '''Close Quarters Battle''' and '''Close Quarters Combat''' respectively, and 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 Vehicle s, 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 operation may train most of their infantry in CQB doctrine. FAMOUS URBAN BATTLES IN MODERN TIME:
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