Extraction (military)

"Exfil" redirects here. For other uses, see Exfiltration (disambiguation).
A UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter performing an extraction of United States Army troops in Iraq
Exfiltration of a member of the parliament during riots in Nairobi (2017).

In military tactics, extraction is the process of removing personnel or units from an area; when conducted with stealth in an area controlled by the enemy it is referred to as exfiltration.[1]

An example of a hostile extraction was Battle of Boz Qandahari, in which U.S. Army Special Forces used donkeys to reach their extraction point while under enemy fire.[2] Another example of an extraction was the joint U.S. Central Intelligence Agency-Canadian government operation to smuggle six fugitive American diplomatic personnel out of revolutionary Iran in 1980 in an operation later known as the Canadian Caper.[3]

  1. ^ "DOD Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms 2017" (PDF). TRADOC.army.mil.
  2. ^ "Until Dawn: Surviving the Battle of Boz Qandahari". www.army.mil. 2017-02-09. Retrieved 2024-05-16.
  3. ^ Halton, David; Nash, Knowlton (January 29, 1980). "Canadian Caper helps Americans escape Tehran". The National. Toronto: CBC Archives. Archived from the original on January 28, 2013. Retrieved February 24, 2013.