dirty war

American  

noun

1. a war conducted by the military or secret police of a regime against revolutionary and terrorist insurgents and marked by the regime's use of kidnapping, torture, and murder, with members of the civilian population often the victims.

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Example Sentences

Scappaticci, who died last year, was the personification of the dirty war secretly fought between Britain's intelligence agencies and the IRA.

From BBC

He now leads Georgia State students on tours of dirty war sites in Buenos Aires.

From Seattle Times

Both those films also deal with the dirty war’s legacy.

From Los Angeles Times

Others said they were justified by the scale of the online dirty war.

From Seattle Times

Writing on Facebook less than two months before she was killed, Barragán said she had been the victim of a “dirty war” in which anonymous opponents had labeled her a “mafiosa.”

From Los Angeles Times