why is urban warfare so difficult especially in the Middle East. Historical examples and analysis

1. MIDDLE EASTERN
URBAN WARFARE
The most exacting type of warfare

2. Urban warfare
• Why focus on urban warfare?
• And why on middle east urban warfare?

3. The popular conception;
War in the Desert

4. The Reality
• The Middle East is an urban environment.
• More than 60% of the people of the Middle
East live in towns and cities of 50,000 or
more.
Baghdad

5. Continuing migration to the cities
City of the dead Cairo

6. Urban Warfare Doctrine
Aachen Germany 1944

7. The Siege and Destroy Strategy
• Manila 1945
• Seoul 1950
• Hue 1968
• Grozny
Grozny Hue
Manilla

8. How to fight an urban insurgency?
Our WWII doctrine.
CG VII Corps issued this ultimatum to the
defenders of Aachen Germany on 10 Oct
1944
– “The city of Aachen is now completely surrounded by American forces. If
the city is not promptly and completely surrendered unconditionally, the
American ground forces and air forces will proceed ruthlessly with air and
artillery bombardment to reduce it to submission.”
– The German commander refused to surrender and Aachen in the words of
a journalist was reduced to “a moon landscape.”

9. Facets of Urban Warfare
• A few determined
defenders can hold off a
much larger force
• Reducing the city to
rubble does not translate
to clearing out the
defenders
• Clearing an area is a
relative term
Warsaw Uprising 1943

10. HISTORY 1
• HISTORY OF MIDDLE EAST URBAN
WARFARE. THE RECENT PAST
– Jerusalem in 48
– Gaza in 56
– Jerusalem in 67
– Amman in 1970 (PLO vs JAA)
– Suez City in 1973
– Beirut (75 to 91)
– Khoramshahr in 1980

11. HISTORY II
• Tyre, Sidon, and Beirut in 1972
• 1980 and 1982 Muslim Brotherhood uprising in Hamah and
Aleppo
• Intifadah I in Palestine 1987
• US in Mogadishu in 1993
• Intifadah II in 2000
Jenin 2002
Iraq 2003-
Jenin 2002

12. URBAN WARFARE I
• Arab Culture and Urban Warfare
– Urban warfare preferred method
– Better at set piece defensive
battles, minimize offensive
warfare, combined arms, and
mechanized warfare
– Arabs have skill and have shown
determination in past urban
warfare.
– Examples include Beirut, Gaza,
Jerusalem, Amman, Jenin and
Falujah….and Gaza over and
over again Gaza 2007

13. Urban warfare II
• Urban warfare puts premium
on deception, political and
media warfare, less on C3
and mobility.
• Often the defender is
fighting for home and
family as well as a cause.
• He will know the urban
terrain

14. Arab as Irregular vs Conventional
Soldier
Syrian soldier

15. New urban warrior
vs the soldier
Requires a fresh examination of
“why men fight”

16. Soldier vs the New Warrior
• The soldier Ethos
• Sacrifice
• Discipline
• Organizational orientation
• Allegiance to State
• Recognized legal status
• “restorer of order”
The Warrior Ethos
Spoils
Lack of discipline
Self promotion
Allegiance to charismatic
leader, cause or
paymaster
Outside the law
Destroyer of order
Ralph Peters, the New Warrior Class, Parameters, Summer 1994

17. Nature of Middle East Cities.I
• Stone, cement composition of
buildings
• Walled in courtyards, with
gardens
• Narrow twisting streets and blind
alleys
• Haphazard growth, street
addresses rare.
• Inadequate municipal services or
non-existent
• Sewage, water supply, lacking.
Water tanks on top of houses.

18. Courtyards

19. Arab Homes

20. Arab Street and Bazaar
Khan Al- Khalili Cairo

21. Nature of Middle Eastern Cities
II
• Ethnic and/or religious quarters, patrilocal families
• Lack of civil society,or civic responsibility
• Neighborhoods run by za’ims. (Godfathers)
• Massive overcrowding.Arab view of privacy
• Dense squatter settlements on outskirts
• Each city has own history. Great rivalries among
cities and between rural and urban people.

22. Nature of Middle East Cities III
• Demographically tend to have
higher population of young
unmarried males
• People tend to settle in areas
ethnically or religiously
segregated. Ex. Shia district in
Beirut
• Increased sectarianism seems
to have replaced extended
family ties in the city.
• Higher social classes tend to
congregate in mixed religious,
or ethnic neighborhoods
• There is very little local city
government. All centralized at
national level
Shi’a area of Beirut

23. Arab Urban conflict

24. Nature of Middle East Cities IV
• Using a buzzword….cities
are the “center of Gravity.”
• “The Arab city is not only a
center of industry,commerce
and finance but also
administration and
jurisdiction, of religion and
culture.Activity in all these
field is concentrated in the
city, to the almost complete
exclusion in the village.
– Gabriel Baer, Population and
Society in the Middle East

25. Urban Conflict
• Anthony Cordesman depicted 3 basic types
of middle east urban war

26. Urban Warfare Approach 1
• Urban light
– Use missiles or air attack on key targets
– Quick commando raids against key targets or
leaders
• Israelis have used this method many times
• Limited success. Civilian casualties, excessive
collateral damage. Absolute need for precise real
time intelligence.

27. Gunship attack on Gaza city

28. Urban War;Approach 2
• Fight on equal terms. Use
same type weapons as
defenders, e.g., avoid use of
heavy weapons such as armor
and artillery.
• This was the method used in
Jenin and it cost the Israelis
heavily. Not using main tank
gun or artillery gives
advantage to defender but
minimizes civilian casualties.

29. Searching homes in Jenin

30. Urban Warfare ;Approach 3
Obliterate
• Using decisive force to
destroy insurgents
• If the command or ruler
cares little for amount of
damage or civilian
casualties.
• This has proved most
successful in Middle East
conflict.
• Example Hamah and
Aleppo in Syria
The Anfal Campaign

31. Urban Warfare Middle Eastern
Style
• Hamah in 1982
Hafez Assad

32. NON-COMBATANTS
• WAYS IN WHICH NON-COMBATANTS
AFFECT URBAN COMBAT IN THE
MIDDLE EAST

33. Impact of non-combatants on
urban conflict I
• Mobility of attacker is slowed by massive
refugee exodus. Defender can use as shields
or as a distraction and delay in order to re-
supply and regroup. The Palestinians have
used this ploy a number of times.
• Example. Palestinian fighter boasted of this
type ploy as being effective in Jenin
fighting with Israelis.

34. They are among and part of the
population

35. NON-COMBATANTS II
• Civilians in the Middle East
conflicts often try to stay in
their homes despite the
carnage around them. This
surprising trend can be
partially answered by the
historical truism in the
Middle East that if you
leave your home you will
not live there again. A
lesson learned by
Palestinians, Separdim
Jews, Assyrians,
Armenians, Kurds, and
many others.

36. Home destroyed…. but we stay!

37. Non-Combatants III
• Use of firepower by attacker is
severely curtailed by presence of
civilians (assuming humanitarian
principles are applied). Israeli
attacks on several Palestinian
camps in 1982 were dictated
tactically by presence of civilians.
Could only fire at buildings from
which incoming fire was
observed.
Ein El Hilweh
refugee Camp

38. A problem if they leave; A
problem if They do not.

39. Non-Combatants IV
• The presence of civilians in the
combat areas also leads to
pilferage,sabotage, and terrorism.
• Troops entering homes in the combat
areas also leads to vandalism,
stealing, and the presence of helpless
intimidated civilians can easily lead
to crimes such as rape. Discipline
erodes.
• This was the story of the Israeli
invasion of Lebanon in 1982.
Initially greeted as liberators from
Palestinian oppression, ill-discipline
among some IDF units created deep
hostility.

40. Non-Combatants V
• The psychological impact on
soldiers also very debilitating;
– The feeling of isolation in the
closed-in structures as well as a
feeling that the battlefield is all
around you
– The impact of seeing the suffering
of innocent civilians
Both factors have had an adverse
effect on IDF soldiers in Lebanon
and Palestinian battles,e.g,.
Reservists walking away from
battlefield, etc.

41. Palestinian refugees 1948

42. Non-Combatant VI
• Maintaining law and order always a major issue in
Middle East. The prevalence of revenge for past
injustices or insults, tribal, sectarian and
ideological hatreds spill over into orgies of killing
• A major example was the massacre of Palestinian
civilians in Lebanese refugee camps after Israelis
had secured the area This was in retaliation for
earlier killing and raping of Christians in Damour
by Muslim and Palestinian militia.

43. Sabra and Shatilla
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a
tooth.
Elie Hobeika

44. Non-Combatant VII
• The Media is unlikely to be your
friend in city combat. “If it
bleeds it leads”. The journalists
will see the aftermath….the
destruction, the civilian suffering,
stories of ill-treatment etc…not
likely to observe civilians used as
human shields, the fire coming
from the buildings, the intensity
of combat or understand the
psychological handicap of
seldom knowing where the fire is
coming from or from whom.

45. Guilty until proven innocent!
BBC HEADLINES
• Jenin 'massacre evidence growing'
18 April 2002
• Eyewitness: Inside ruined Jenin
much later………….
• 'No Jenin massacre' says rights
group 3May

46. CONCLUSION
• Urban combat will increasingly be the
warfare of the future
• The complexity of the problem will increase
• The need for “cultural intelligence” will be
decisive
• The requirement for intellectual and
psychological fitness for every “strategic
corporal” will be imperative.

47. QUESTIONS??
COMMENTS??