Irregular warfare

Irregular warfare is warfare in which one or more combatants are irregular military rather than regular forces. Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare, and so is asymmetric warfare.

The overuse of the term 'warfare' in contemporary military terminology to describe both a specific type of engagement and the type of forces participating in it can lead to false conclusions. A guerrilla unit that is made of commandos is a regular unit conducting asymmetric warfare whereas an irregular band of fighters can engage combat in a tactical infantry firefight if well led and well equipped, fighting like a conventional unit. To eschew false assumptions perhaps it is a better idea not to take insurgency terminology at face value before verifying the status of the all the belligerent parties involved.