Manhunt (military)

Manhunting is the deliberate identification, capturing, or killing of senior or otherwise important enemy combatants, classified as high-value targets, usually by special operations forces and intelligence organizations. According to a 2008 study, since 1968, 40% of armed non-state groups met their end because local police and intelligence agencies arrested or killed key members.

A response to asymmetric tactics adopted by terrorists, insurgents, pirates, narco-traffickers, arms proliferators, and other non-state actors, manhunting has been adopted by military and intelligence organizations to reduce collateral damage that would occur during a conventional military assault.

The most visible such operations conducted today involve counterterrorist activities. Some involve government-sanctioned targeted killing or extrajudicial execution. Operations to capture terrorists have drawn political and legal controversy. See Legal Issues below. Other military operations, such as hostage rescue or personnel recovery, employ similar tactics and techniques. The primary difference in hostage rescue or personnel recovery is that the person being rescued or recovered wants to be found; while high-value targets want to avoid being found.

In 1967, Che Guevara was pursued by the Bolivian military, who were poorly trained and equipped. The U.S. government sent a team of the CIA's Special Activities Division commandos and other operatives into Bolivia to aid the anti-insurrection effort. The Bolivian Army was also trained, advised, and supplied by U.S. Army Special Forces including a recently organized elite battalion of Rangers trained in jungle warfare that set up camp in La Esperanza, a small settlement close to the location of Guevara's guerrillas.Félix Rodríguez, a Cuban exile turned CIA Special Activities Division operative, advised Bolivian troops during the hunt for Guevara in Bolivia. On October 7, an informant apprised the Bolivian Special Forces of the location of Guevara's guerrilla encampment in the Yuro ravine. They encircled the area with 1,800 soldiers, and Guevara was wounded and taken prisoner while leading a detachment with Simeón Cuba Sarabia. On October 9, Bolivian President René Barrientos ordered that Guevara be summarily executed.

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