Syrians faced with the tactics of "scorched earth"

18.06.2017, Syria.

The tactics of “scorched earth” is used by retreating militants of ISIL (organization banned in Russia), residents from the liberated provinces of Syria inform, RIA Novosti news agency reported on June 16.

Residents of the Syrian provinces informed that militants destroy industrial facilities and civilian infrastructure, including agricultural crops, food stores, and water sources when they retreat.

“When the Syrian army began to move toward the village, the militants disassembled and removed all the equipment,” said baker Ahmad As-Safar, a resident of the liberated village.

This tactic is called “scorched earth”, and it is used during a planned retreat to the prepared areas with total, complete destruction of all facilities and infrastructure in order to obstruct the advancement and deployment enemy troops. A similar tactic was used by the German-fascist troops during their retreat in 1943-1945. The “scorched earth” tactic was also used to create buffer zones for fighting against partisan detachments in the temporarily occupied territories of the USSR by German-fascist troops (when dozens of villages were burned together with civilians), as well as by US troops in Vietnam. It was first widely used by the British in the Boer War in 1899-1902 .

Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency

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