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Urban Combat An interesting observation

Urban Combat

An interesting observation from Jonathon Marcus on the BBC warblog:

I think British forces are very reluctant to move into Basra, after all this is a largely Shia city they believed they would be welcomed in.

But the British force is not a particularly armour-heavy force, there lots of specialised infantry, the Paratroops, the Royal Marines, and so on. All of these units have massive experience, from Northern Ireland, and from the Balkans. They are very well versed in urban combat.

In a funny sort of way, the way the Marines are operating looks very similar to Northern Ireland. If you take the buildings away and change the architecture - you see small groups going in, one man at the back covering the rear, all the windows and openings of buildings covered, and so on.

It's a sort of warfare that these British infantry forces are very experienced in, probably a great deal more experienced than American forces in the region.

There's also a post making a similar point about Umm Qasr:

British troops have replaced American marines in the southern Iraqi port of Umm Qasr.

The past 24 hours has been generally quiet. Whether that's a measure of the different tactics employed by the British forces rather than the Americans, it's hard to tell.

The Royal Marines are very experienced at urban conflict, patrolling street to street and zoning off areas. And they have a much more 'hearts and minds' approach than the Americans.

The Americans tended to be much more confrontational. If they saw problems they tended to retreat and open fire if necessary. Whereas the British approach certainly has been to move in with a small squad, surround the area, and detain a few people. It seems to be working on the face of it.

Posted by Dr. Frank at March 25, 2003 07:17 AM | TrackBack