Urban warfareUrban warfare is warfare conducted in populated
urban areas such as towns, cities and refugee camps. An
alternative term, still in widespread use, is MOUT, commonly
standing for Military Operations in/on Urban Terrain. The US
manual Warfare inside a city is very different from a
traditional open field battle against a conventional army. A
complicating factor of urban warfare is the presence of
civilians, sometimes as combatants of various sorts, ranging
from armed militias to people defending their homes against all
comers, usually with many innocent non-combatants trying to stay
out of the way of the battling forces. The military operations
are also complicated by limited fields of view and fire because
of buildings, large amounts of concealment and cover for
defenders and the ease of placement of booby traps and snipers.
Traditional (World War II) military operations often rely on
large quantities of artillery fire, which many modern armies
will try to avoid as a way of reducing civilian casual