text: Civil Affairs in Special Operations
  diplomatically sensitive environments, which employs specialized military capabilities to seize, destroy,
  capture, exploit, recover, or damage designated targets. Direct action differs from conventional offensive
  actions in the level of physical and political risk, operational techniques, and the degree of discriminate and
  precise use of force to achieve specific objectives.
  C-11. CA forces do not conduct direct action missions; however, CA forces conduct CR and CE to gain shared
  understanding of the civil component to address possible adverse effects of direct action and to mitigate those
  effects through civil network engagement and civil considerations analysis. CAO planning support to direct
  action may include—
  * Gaining civil information to develop the civil component of the common operational picture of
  the commander.
  * Providing civil component analysis to planning processes.
  * Providing civil component analysis toward the identification of—
  Critical links and nodes.
  
  Decisive points.
  
  Centers of gravity.
  
  * Advising on the presence and potential of culturally, economically, and politically significant
  assets and resources within the objective area.
  * Participating in the targeting process by nominating restrictive-fire areas and no-fire areas to
  minimize unnecessary damage to the civil infrastructure and culturally sensitive sites.
  * Evaluating damage to infrastructure and other combat-related effects to the civil component.
  * Providing post-strike employment options for CA capabilities.
  Note: JP 3-05 and ATP 3-18.3 provide additional information on direct action.
  SPECIAL RECONNAISSANCE
  C-12. Special reconnaissance is a core activity of ARSOF consisting of reconnaissance and surveillance actions
  conducted by select ARSOF elements as a special operation in hostile, denied, or diplomatically and/or
  politically sensitive environments to collect or verify information of strategic or operational significance, which
  employs military capabilities not normally found in conventional forces. CA forces do not conduct special
  reconnaissance missions. However, CA forces conduct CND, CR, and CE to gain shared understanding of the
  civil component to inform the planning effort for special reconnaissance missions. CAO planning support to
  special reconnaissance may include—
  * Engaging civil networks that have access to denied or sensitive areas.
  * Gaining civil information to develop the civil component of the common operational picture of
  the supported commander.
  * Providing civil component analysis to planning processes.
  * Advising on the presence of culturally, economically, and politically significant assets and
  resources within the objective area.
  Note: FM 3-05 and ATP 3-18.4 provide additional information on special reconnaissance.
  COUNTERTERRORISM
  C-13. Counterterrorism consists of activities and operations taken to neutralize terrorists and their
  organizations and networks in order to render them incapable of using violence to instill fear and coerce
  governments or societies to achieve their goals (JP 3-26). Counterterrorism actions include strikes and raids
  against terrorist organizations and facilities outside the U.S. and its territories.