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Low intensity conflict (LIC) is an armed conflict, usually between a regular army and non-regular armed
militias (terror organization, guerrilla fighters, gangs, rioters etc). The term LIC is used to describe a violent conflict which is not a
war, more percisely, not a full-scale war between two armies of orgaized states).
Low intensity operations
Low-Intensity Operations is a military term for the deployment
and use of troops in situations other than war. Generally these operations are against
non-state
adversaries and are given terms like counter-insurgency, anti-subversion, or peacekeeping. The term appears to
have originated with General Sir Frank Kitson.
Low-intensity conflict is defined by the US Joint Chiefs of Staff (as promulgated in the US Army Field Manual 100-20) as:
... a political-military confrontation between contending states or groups below conventional war and above the routine,
peaceful competition among states. It frequently involves protracted struggles of competing principles and ideologies.
Low-intensity conflict ranges from subversion to the use of the armed forces. It is waged by a combination of means, employing
political, economic, informational, and military instruments. Low-intensity conflicts are often localized, generally in the Third
World, but contain regional and global security implications.
As the name suggests, in comparison with conventional operations the armed forces involved operate at a greatly reduced tempo,
with fewer soldiers, a reduced range of tactical equipment and limited scope to operate in a military manner. For example the use
of air power, pivotal in modern warfare, is often relegated to transport and
surveillance. Artillery is most often not used at all if LIC is occuring in
populated area. The role of the armed forces is dependent on the stage of
the insurrection, whether it has progressed to armed struggle or is in an early stage of propaganda and protests.
Intelligence
gathering is the key process - the basis of operation instructions and ultimately overall success or failure. The
intelligence gathered is largely HUMINT, the 'opposition' do not typically act in a way
that is susceptible to extensive SIGINT or ELINT gathering.
In the first stages of insurrection much of the army's work is "soft" - working in conjunction with civil authorities in
psychological operations, propaganda, counter-organising, so-called "hearts-and-minds." If the conflict
progresses, possibly into armed clashes, the role develops with the addition of the identification and removal of the armed
groups - but again, at a low level, communities rather than entire cities. Throughout the conflict there is a general need for
the armed forces to operate in a manner to which they are not well-suited or adequately trained - police-work, individual
assassination, arrests, interrogations and torture being problematic and often leading to human rights abuses and un-necessary
deaths.
Examples of low-intensity operations include the British campaigns against the Mau Mau in Kenya in the 1950s, the Malayan Peoples Anti British army led by the Communist leader Chin Peng in Malaya in the from 1948 to 1960 known as the Malayan Emergency, Aden in the 60s, Oman in the
70s Cyprus in the 1960s, Northern Ireland since the late 1960s. Indeed since World War II the British military has engaged in over
fifty low intensity campaigns.
The Israeli Defence Forces have performed hundreds
of low-intensity operations during the al-Aqsa Intifada and
achieved overwhelming results. In intelligence gathering, the Israeli SHABAK has
managed to create a large network of HUMINT and produce exact intelligence which enabled the IDF to pinpoint terrorist leaders
and take them out.
LIC Doctorines
- Urban warfare:
- MOUT : the "macro" of urban
warfare, how to utilize infantry, tanks,
snipers and bulldozers in order to
clear a populated area from armed enemy's forces with minimal casualties to raiding forces and civilian population.
- CQB : the "micro" of urban
warfare, how a squad of infantry should fight in narrow allys, houses and tunnels.
- Counter terror
- Intelligence gathering
- HUMINT : HUMINT stands for Human Intelligence, and refers to
intelligence-gathering by means of: interrogations , espionage and usage of secret
agents network from the local population.
- SIGINT : SIGINT stands for Signals Intelligence, and refers to
intelligence-gathering by interception of signals, whether by radio interception or other means.
- ELINT : stands for Electronic Intelligence, and refers to intelligence-gathering
by use of electronic sensors.
Further reading
- General Sir Frank Kitson. Low-intensity Operations: Subversion, Insurgency and Peacekeeping. Faber and Faber, 1971.
ISBN 0571161812
- British Army (Ed.) Land Operations, Volume III, Counter Revolutionary Operations, 1969.
- Robert Asprey. War in the Shadows, ISBN 0595225934
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