I'd say this is certainly terrorism, it's been the tactic of the IRA since its foundation. As with the IRA, soldiers find it very hard to both preserve civilians and battle concealed soldiery.
Also as with the IRA, of course, the terrorists believe that they are fighting for their country against foreign invaders who have no right to be there. As with the IRA, a sizeable proportion of the locals support their aims, many strongly enough to give the terrorists aid and shelter - and any reprisals against such civilians will only add to the number hating the occupiers.
And as with the IRA, interested foreign powers or individuals will doubtless supply the terrorists with arms... of course, with the IRA the guns often came from their American supporters.
And many will term these not terrorists, but guerillas... or even freedom fighters, because they fight for the 'freedom' of their people against foreign invaders, and don't care that the foreigners claim to be acting for the good of all the natives. They did for the IRA, after all.
BTW, the IRA had only ~1000 'active' members (although numbered maybe ten times that allegedly prepared to fight), and during the worst of the terrorist phase only about 3% support. |
