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The Best Way into Baghdad

(New York Times) - Yagil Henkin Last spring, after a series of Palestinian suicide bombings, the IDF entered several densely populated West Bank cities, including Nablus and Jenin, gaining control of each of them within just a week. The key to the IDF success was a sort of "planned unpredictability." Instead of using conventional linear tactics - taking the outskirts of the town first, then systematically clearing every house - Israeli forces simultaneously attacked from many directions, using a technique known as swarming, in which many small units, moving in zigzag patterns, infiltrate to the middle of the city and attack from the inside out. Units constantly disappeared, only to reappear in completely different places, attacking from new angles that kept the defenders disoriented and unable to dig in. Israeli snipers positioned themselves in the tallest buildings and worked closely with troops at the street level to identify targets and confound their enemies' expectations. As one Palestinian fighter said afterward: "The Israelis were everywhere: behind, on the sides, on the right and on the left. How can you fight that way?"
2003-04-03 00:00:00
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