How can special forces use guerrilla warfare against a conventional enemy?

Special forces can employ guerrilla warfare against a conventional enemy by utilizing unorthodox and indirect approaches to exploit vulnerabilities that conventional forces cannot easily address. Rather than engaging in direct, large-scale combat, special forces may conduct operations designed to harass, distract, and erode the enemy's capacity and will to fight.123

Tactics used by special forces in this context include:

• Harassing Supply Lines: Disrupting the enemy's logistics and communication networks to impede their ability to sustain conventional operations.2
• Raising Partisan Forces: Organizing, training, or supporting indigenous groups to act as proxies, thereby expanding the conflict and forcing the enemy to divert resources to secure areas previously considered pacified.24
• Creating Distractions: Forcing the enemy to deal with threats in multiple locations, which prevents them from concentrating their superior military weight and disrupts their strategic focus.2
• Employing Deception and Surprise: Utilizing the core tenets of guerrilla tactics—such as hit-and-run ambushes and mobility—to deny the enemy initiative and sanctuary.23

By operating in small, flexible units, special forces can resolve specific operational or strategic problems as economically as possible, often operating clandestinely to avoid the political and military risks associated with overt conventional warfare.124