When an armed military force of a country aims to attack a legitimate targeted area with the intention of least or no collateral damage to the surrounding buildings, vehicles and others, then the attack is classified as a surgical strike. Surgical strike reduces the chances of countries taking part in the full-blown war as the attacks are made only by neutralizing targets. There are several ways of carrying out surgical strike attacks. These ways are airstrike, airdropping special ops teams, swift ground operation or by sending special troops.
There is another way of executing a surgical strike, named precision bombing. Precision bombing method is carried out by an aircraft. Precision bombing is contrasted against carpet bombing, but the latter causes huge collateral damage and destroys a wide range of a huge area. Carpet bombing may or may not cause high civilian casualties. One of the most famous incidents of executing a successful surgical strike was when the US military force bombed Baghdad during the invasion of Iraq in the initial stages of 2003. That surgical strike attack is known as “shock and awe”.
The US military forces targeted only government buildings and others to conduct this coordinated surgical strike. The US aircrafts systematically attacked those targets to cripple the government of Iraq that was controlled by the Ba’athist under Saddam Hussain.
There are several examples of surgical strikes that have happened in a century. One of the leading countries in order of carrying out surgical strikes is the United States. The US military forces have successfully executed numerous surgical strikes against the Al-Qaeda terrorist targets in Afghanistan. They used cruise missiles for those attacks. The US used this technology in Sudan against a purported chemical weapon facility too. One of the prime examples of surgical strike attack is Israel’s bombing on the Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak. In 1976, a commando operation was held at Entebbe, Uganda, that helped Israeli passengers to get out of a hijacked plane. This incident is also considered as a part of the surgical strike.
To give a reply to the terrorist attack on the Indian army, India announced and conducted a surgical strike on 29th September 2016 against the launch pads of militants across the Line of Control in Pakistani-administered Kashmir. The Indian media reported various casualty figures from thirty-five to seventy.
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