Romans first encountered that tactic in the
Lusitanian War in which
Lusitanians used the tactic called
concursare ("bustling"). It involved charging forwards against the enemy lines, only to retreat after a brief clash or without clashing, which would be followed by more attacks in a similar cadence. The Lusitanians drove the Roman armies to break formation and chase them, leading them to traps and
ambushes. The
Seljuk victory over the
Byzantine Empire at the
Battle of Manzikert was preceded by hit-and-run attacks of Seljuk cavalry, which threw the Byzantine army into confusion and proved fatal once it started to retreat. Similarly, the earlier
Parthian and
Sassanid Persian horse archers paved the way for their
cataphracts' attack, which achieved the decisive victories at the
Battle of Carrhae and
Battle of Edessa. The use of hit-and-run tactics dates back even earlier to the nomadic
Scythians of
Central Asia, who used them against
Darius the Great's
Persian Achaemenid Empire and later against
Alexander the Great's
Macedonian Empire. The Turkish general
Baibars also successfully used hit-and-run during the
Battle of Ain Jalut, the first defeat of the quickly expanding Mongol Empire. Vastly outnumbered in North America, the French made effective use of hit-and-run raids during the various
French and Indian Wars. In the
Turkish War of Independence, the Turks fought against the Greeks by hit-and-run tactics before a regular army was set up. Marathas under shivaji and his successors also resorted to hit and run tactics against Mughal Empire. During the
Vietnam War,
Viet Cong forces used hit-and-run tactics to great effectiveness against U.S. military forces. The tactic was also used in
Afghanistan by rebel forces during the
Soviet–Afghan War. Various
Iraqi insurgent groups have also used hit-and-run tactics against
Iraqi Security Forces and American-led coalition forces in Iraq. Improvised fighting vehicles, called "
technicals", are often used in such operations. == In economics==