Friday, February 13, 2015

Identifying Fighters in the Battle of Monrovia

In the 1st Liberian Civil War, identifying fighters from faction to faction is an extremely difficult task, even for the fighters themselves. One ULIMO-J fighter when fighting the NPFL mentioned that "We are supposed to be fighting the NPFL, but in battle things go differently". Here are several photos of fighters from the 1996 Battle of Monrovia between the ULIMO-J and the NPFL. As you can see from these photos, identifying fighters from each specific faction is an almost impossible task. I will identify each fighter's faction if their faction if their faction is known. If not I will simply put "Unknown". What occurred in this battle is that ULIMO-J suffered inter-factional fighting due to some leadership dispute with high ranking members tried  to remove Roosevelt Johnson as the leader of ULIMO-J. This gave Johnson's enemies in ULIMO-K and NPFL a convenient excuse to theoretically arrest Johnson (most likely in reality an attempt to assassinate him) for murder charges. What is likely is that the ones that sources identify that faction is when the fighters actually identify themselves to the photographers. The ones left unidentified are just taken photographed running around and shooting are left unknown to the photographers. This photos show the complexities of modern non-state conflict when combatants of both sides are virtually identical. If some of my readers wonder why some of those fighters are naked, here is the reason. Nudity among fighters (especially ULIMO-J fighters under "General Butt Naked") is motivated by the fact that many of these fighters are tribal and they believe that fighting naked into battle will magically protect them from bullets (along with cross-dressing, it is not unusual for combatants to literally wear wedding dresses in battle).
ULIMO-J

ULIMO-J

ULIMO-J

ULIMO-J

NPFL

NPFL

NPFL

NPFL

NPFL

ULIMO-J

NPFL

NPFL

NPFL

NPFL

ULIMO-J

ULIMO-J

Presumably ULIMO-J. The purple mark is a decapitated corpse of a NPFL fighter. I censored it because it was too graphic. The man with the saw presumably used it to behead the corpse.

Unknown

NPFL

ULIMO-J

Unknown

NPFL

Presumably NPFL because of the paint markings on the truck

NPFL

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

NPFL

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

NPFL

Unknown

NPFL

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

NPFL

Unknown

NPFL

Unknown

NPFL

Unknown

NPFL

Unknown

Unknown

NPFL

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

NPFL

NPFL

NPFL

NPFL

NPFL

ULIMO-J

NPFL

NPFL

ULIMO-J

NPFL
NPFL
ULIMO-J

NPFL

NPFL

NPFL

NPFL

NPFL

ULIMO-J

ULIMO-J

ULIMO-J

ULIMO-J

ULIMO-J

NPFL

NPFL
ULIMO-J

NPFL

ULIMO-J
NPFL
NPFL

ULIMO-J

ULIMO-J

ULIMO-J

ULIMO-J

NPFL

NPFL
ULIMO-J
ULIMO-J

Government Troops of the Cambodian Civil War of 1967-75











Assyrian Warfare

The Assyrians were famous for their innovations to warfare, especially their legendary skill in siege warfare. The Assyrians by using Iron weapons, they brought a transition from the Bronze age to the Iron age. They were among the 1st civilizations to make war a state policy. During sieges, the Assyrian army used siege engines such as the battering ram to break down walls of rebelling towns, along with sophisticated engineering and logistics to help their war machine. To punish revolting cities, they massacred and enslaved the rebelling cities with the heads of their kings in the tree. Some of the more famous conflicts that the Assyrians were involved in was the wars against the Hebrews, Egyptians, and Babylonians. The Assyrian empire was not invincible, and soon due to invaders and civil wars, along with other factors, the Assyrian empire fell. However, they brought an lasting impact on how wars are waged.