Risk Factors
DA, conducted by special operations forces, uses a small ground team, possibly with air and naval support, which maintains a high degree of secrecy about the intended action. It relies on surprise and skill, rather than mass, and has a "hit-and-run" approach:
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- clandestine approach to the target
- short, precise, and violent force
- exfiltration as soon as the objective is completed, making the team's exit as hidden as possible. Direct action is not a suicidal attack.
If the political situation so requires, the DA team may operate completely or partially out of uniform. In some cases, which international law accepts as a legitimate "ruse of war", a direct action force may infiltrate to the target area in civilian clothes, but must make some distinguishing insignia visible before taking any combat actions. While the entire mission was not completed due to a lack of helicopters, the DA force, in Operation Eagle Claw, which was to make the actual attack on the occupied American Embassy in Tehran, would wear nondescript clothing until they reached the assembly point for the attack. At that time, before using any weapons, they would remove black coverings over American flags, putting them in compliance with having a distinctive insignia or uniform.
In practice, any military force that operates at least partially out of uniform may be considered unlawful combatants. Formally, being out of uniform while approaching a target is considered a legitimate ruse of war, rather than spying, according to the language of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949. This continues the language of the Hague Convention of 1907. Countries do not always honor this legal protection, as with the Nazi Commando Order of WWII, which was held illegal at the Nuremberg Trials.
The status of guerillas acting under a distinct chain of command, complying with the customary laws of war, wearing at least a distinctive armband or other insignia, and carrying arms openly while in combat, is that they technically are legal combatants, but this, historically, is respected even less than for regular military personnel making a clandestine approach to the target.
Read more about this topic: Direct Action (military)
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