Urgent Request Regarding Military Campaign

In respect of the current consideration of a military campaign, an attempt to decide any tactical move must necessarily consider certain aspects of combat doctrines and rules against national and international humanitarian protection measures. Any military campaign by the British Army calls for determining legality and tactical practicality of whether an aerial bombing or a ground military operation could be carried out by reviewing relevant military rules and doctrines. As aware, it is necessary to review the doctrine of counter-insurgency (COIN) in this regard. COIN involves comprehensive civilian and military efforts to defeat an insurgency and also to address core grievances. It controls the violence level and secures the population (British Ministry of Defence Crown, 2007). Securing and protecting people and places, even from acts of the British Army, is one of the functions of land power (British Ministry of Defence Crown, 2007).

The UK LOAC Pamphlet (1981) provides that the British Army will not engage in indiscriminate bombing, also termed carpet bombing. They will, instead addressed each of the targets individually and attacked. It stipulates that area bombardment is an indiscriminate attack and therefore prohibited. According to the UK LOAC Manual (2004), indiscriminate attacks may take the form of an attack by means of “bombardment by any methods or means which treats as a single military objective a number of clearly separated and distinct military objectives located in a city, town, village or other area containing a similar concentration of civilians or civilian objects”. (IHL Database, 2020). It is, therefore, necessary to assess the extent to which international humanitarian law (IHL) is deferential to military necessity demands given the potential civilian casualty the military campaign may cause.

Concerned IHL rules apply in the time of war or armed conflict and regulate the treatment of civilians, as well as military personnel, whether they are wounded or active and are involved in armed conflicts (Bothe, 2013). The ICJ observed that the right to life is protected under the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights 1976, but lexspecialis during the time of armed conflict is IHL, which governs this covenant (ICJ, 1996). At the same time, the concerns of military necessity are not illegitimate. But, adherence to rules of humanitarian law reinforces military discipline and order. Most of these rules, thus, reflect good military practice (Greenwood, 1995). The collateral damage should be proportionate with the warfare objectives of destroying or weakening enemies’ military strength. But, this does not allow killing innocent inhabitants (Pictet, 1966). All these rules are reflected in the ‘Martens Clause’, in the Hague Convention IV that provides for a balance between military considerations with humanitarian perspectives (The Hague, 1907).

The UK Government Strategy on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict (2010) includes the rule that under the IHL, civilians and combatants ‘hors de combat’ have specific protection during armed conflict, but they must not, or no longer take a direct part in hostilities. Article 51 of the Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Convention provides for protection of the civilian population as per concerned international customary rules. The UK LOAC Manual (2004) is on the same path and provides for distinction between civilians taking a direct part in hostilities, who may be attacked, and those who are not taking a direct part in hostilities, who are protected from attack.” Persons who are not members of the armed forces or in cases of doubt are considered civilians. (IHL Database, 2020). There must be a differentiation between military and civilian objects and the proportionality of collateral civilian damage. This was also recognised by the UK Under-Secretary of State for Defence and the Minister of State for the Armed Forces during the military operations during the Gulf War in 1991. According to the UK LOAC Manual (2004), civilian objects include places of worship. The 1977 Additional Protocol I, Article 52(1) provides that civilian objects must not be the object of attack or of reprisals. Any violation of these rules is unlawful. The UK ICC Act (2001) makes any war crime a punishable offence and such violation may come under war crime. However, British Army can carry out military campaign to meet its military objective, which may include combatant members of enemy armed forces and their military weapons, equipment, vehicles, and installations. There must be specific area to be a military objective and it must derive some definite military advantage (IHL Database, 2020).

Based on the rules and doctrines, the legal and operational military measures require securing the mosque and protecting the civilians as a part of the use of land power. The option of aerial bombing of the mosque will be treated as indiscriminate bombing and is prohibited as per the UK LOAC Pamphlet (1981). Any military campaign must adhere to humanitarian law, which protects the right to life of both the military and the civilians and in turn brings harmony between military necessity and public order is compatible. The aerial campaign will cause disproportionate collateral damage as lives of innocent inhabitants will be exposed to risk as long as they do not take direct part in hostilities. This will help differentiate military and civilian objects. In the current case, the mosque is one of civilian objects and it cannot legally be an object of attack. However, it is legally justified to meet military objectives and attack combatants, their military weapons, equipment, vehicles, and installations as long it gets military advantage. The best alternative would be conducting a military campaign by adopting Air-land integration (ALI), where there is interoperability between the air and land components with strong joint doctrine and capabilities, and detailed co-ordination and liaison across the concerned components with full integrated air staff within core planning teams and air-minded personnel at tactical and operational levels (British Ministry of Defence Crown, 2007). The military objectives must be specified to separate civilian objects and military objects, by taking actions such as deprivation of freedom of action of the insurgents, fixing the target, denying them information, cutting ability to pass orders, sustainment, and reducing co-ordinate actions and effects. A combination of defensive and offensive activities could be deployed where defensive tactic may be used to buy time or create opportunities for offensive activities, including aerial and land actions. A key terrain could be fixed or the enemy could be restricted to one area, which will enable further creating conditions for offensive activities (British Ministry of Defence Crown, 2007).

Bibliography

• Bothe, M., 2013. The Handbook of International Humanitarian Law. Oxford University Press.
• British Army, 2009. British Army Field Manual: Countering Insurgency. BBC.
• British Ministry of Defence Crown, 2007. Land Warfare Development Centre Army Doctrine Publication AC 71940. Publication.
• Greenwood, C., 1995. Historical Development and Legal Basis. In D. Fleck, ed. The Handbook of Humanitarian Law in Armed Conflicts. Oxford University Press.
• ICJ, 1996. Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, Advisory Opinion, 1996 I.C.J. 226, 262-63 (July 8). ICJ.
• IHL Database, 2020. Customary Database: Practice Relating to Rule 6. Civilians’ Loss of Protection from Attack. [Online] Available at: https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v2_cou_gb_rule6 [Accessed 13 April 2020].
• IHL Database, 2020. Customary Database: Practice Relating to Rule 8. Definition of Military Objectives. [Online] Available at: https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v2_cou_gb_rule8 [Accessed 13 April 2020].
• IHL Database, 2020. Customary IHL: Practice Relating to Rule 13. Area Bombardment. [Online] Available at: https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v2_cou_gb_rule13 [Accessed 13 April 2020].
• Pictet, J.S., 1966. Principles of International Humanitarian Law. Geneva: ICRC.
• The Hague, 1907. Convention (IV) respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land and its annex: Regulations concerning the Laws and Customs of War on Land. The Hague, 18 October 1907. The Hague.