IDF Officers Practice Urban Warfare
Last week, the company commanders of the Kfir Brigade conducted an exercise simulating the takeover of a hostile urban area while terrorists are hiding. The drill is a part of a larger IDF doctrine: be as efficient as possible while fighting in urban centers by focusing on hostile targets, and hostile targets only.
19.03.12
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Officers securing the area during the exercise
The IDF’s civilian-to-terrorist death ratio is the lowest in the world. For every 30 terrorists killed, there is only one civilian casualty. This number is low considering the various tactics used by terror organizations that put many citizens in harms way. One of these tactics used by Hamas is the "human shield", which deliberately put the citizens of Gaza in the line of fire in order to make it easy for their own terrorists to hide.
In order to combat these methods, the IDF has focused its efforts on learning how to fight efficiently in urban areas. Many training centers have been established over the last year, with the Urban Warfare Training Center being the largest of them all.
Panoramic night-view of the Urban Warfare Training Center
The Urban Warfare Training Center, considered to be one of the world’s most advanced army facilities, consists of over 600 individual structures, simulating an authentic, modern Arab city. Among the structures, one can find eight-story-high apartment complexes, shabby shacks, schools, city-stores, public buildings, and market places.
Upon conclusion of the exercise, the commander of the Kfir Brigade, Colonel Odi Ben-Moha, said: “Every exercise we conduct is based on those which preceded it. We always aspire to improve. We learn from our mistakes and work on being as efficient as possible on the battle field.”
