DIRTY WAR Definition & Meaning

dirty war

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

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

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“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.

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

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