dirty war

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.

Example Sentences

She pays tribute to her native Buenos Aires’ Recoleta and Argentina’s “dirty war,” which claimed the lives of thousands of innocents.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Argentina’s military took power in a right-wing coup and launched a “dirty war” against dissidents, killing and “disappearing” thousands of victims.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

But he says he never approved a "dirty war" against the rebels.

Read more on BBC

“We would like to hit Moscow to end this dirty war. Children and civilians suffer, everyone does.”

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Not for those who suffered in the “dirty war” under the junta, but for those victims of leftist guerrillas before the putsch.

Read more on Seattle Times