Combat Operations/Civil Security Operations LLO

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Combat Operations/Civil Security Operations LLO
Activities:	Secure the populace continuously, separate insurgency from populace, counter crime (organized and petty), secure national and regional borders and isolate insurgency, integrate with HN security forces and hand over responsibility on case-by-case basis.
End State:	Populace secured continuously and freedom of lawful movement established.

This LLO is the most familiar to military forces. Care must be taken not to apply too many resources to this LLO at the expense of other LLOs that facilitate the development or reinforcement of the HN government’s legitimacy. Under full spectrum operations, forces conduct simultaneous offensive, defensive, and stability operations. Offensive and defensive operations focus on defeating enemy forces. Security operations, including area security, pertain to actions taken to protect the force. They are associated with offensive and defensive operations. In contrast, stability operations focus on security and control of areas, resources, and populations. Civil security and civil control are types of stability operations. Army commanders expect a mission of protecting and providing security for a population to be expressed in terms of civil security or civil control.

Within the COIN context, Marine Corps doctrine does not draw a distinction in this manner; rather, it places tasks related to civil security and area security under combat operations. A Marine force assigned an area security mission during a COIN operation executes it as a combat operation. The force establishes and maintains measures to protect people and infrastructure from hostile acts or influences while actively seeking out and engaging insurgent forces.

Insurgents use unlawful violence to weaken the HN government, intimidate people into passive or active support, and murder those who oppose the insurgency. Measured combat operations are always required to address insurgents who cannot be co-opted into operating inside the rule of law. These operations may sometimes require overwhelming force and the killing of fanatic insurgents. However, COIN is “war amongst the people.” Combat operations must therefore be executed with an appropriate level of restraint to minimize or avoid injuring innocent people. Needlessly harming innocents can turn the populace against the COIN effort. Discriminating use of fires and calculated, disciplined response should characterize COIN operations. Battalion-sized and smaller unit operations are often most effective for countering insurgent activities. Counterinsurgents need to get as close as possible to the people to secure them and glean the maximum amount of quality information. Doing this helps counterinsurgents gain a fluidity of action equal or superior to that of the enemy.

Considerations for developing the combat operations/civil security operations LLO

• Develop cultural intelligence, which assumes a prominent role. Make every effort to learn as much about the environment as possible. Human dynamics tend to matter the most.
• Ensure that rules of engagement adequately guide Soldiers and Marines engaged in combat while encouraging the prudent use of force commensurate with mission accomplishment and self-defense.
• Consider how the populace might react when planning tactical situations, even for something as simple as a traffic control point. Anticipate how people might respond to each operation.
• Identify tasks the host-nation government and populace generally perceive to be productive and appropriate for an outside force. Focus counterinsurgents on them.
• Win over, exhaust, divide, capture, or eliminate the senior- and mid-level insurgents leaders as well as network links.
• Frustrate insurgent recruiting.
• Disrupt base areas and sanctuaries.
• Deny outside patronage (external support). Make every effort to stop insurgents from bringing materiel support across international and territorial borders.
• When patrolling in or occupying an area, clear only what the unit intends to hold. Otherwise, the effort will be wasted as the insrugents reoccupy the area. An exception to this policy is when commanders deem disruption of enemy strongholds necessary.
• When Soldiers and Marines interact with the populace, encourage them to treat people with respect to avoid alienating anyone.
• Support efforts to disarm, demobilize, and reintegrate into society members of armed groups outside of government control, such as militias and paramilitary organizations. Also include insurgents who are captured, surrender, or accept amnesty.
• Take a census as soon as is practicable. Help the host-nation government do this. This information can be helpful for learning about the people and meeting their needs. The census also establishes a necessary database for civil security operations.
• Help the host-nation government produce and distribute identification cards. Register all citizens - or at least those nearing a predetermined, adult age. Identification cards may help to track people's movements. This information is useful in identifying illicit activity and also contributes to civil security.
• There are important logistic considerations for this LLO.

There are also several indicators that can be used to help measure progress for this LLO in the quantitative knowledge portal.

Source: Counterinsurgency Field Manual 3-24