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HTS Militants Overrun Islamic State Outpost and Exploit Retreating Fighters
Published 2 years ago
Footage recorded by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham in the Hama desert shows members of the Islamic State being overrun. During the Islamic State's retreat, we get to witness a textbook exploitation.
The exploitation phase of an assault happens after the enemy has been pushed off of an objective into retreat. While retreating, friendly forces continue to put indirect and direct fire weapon systems onto retreating forces to inflict as much damage as possible. This is done to prevent enemy forces from regrouping at a nearby staging point to conduct a counter-attack.
In a traditional assault, the counter-attack phase of the operation begins immediately following the exploitation phase. In this phase, the friendly forces immediately go firm around the objective, not on it, and prepare for the enemy to attempt to retake back the ground that they just lost. If no counter-attack occurs, then immediately following this phase future combat operations can begin.
Both groups in this footage however are terrorist organizations and not professional military fighting units. Most likely they conducted the exploitation phase here by accident, and I highly doubt that HTS then established a perimeter and waited for a counter-attack on their position.
