Sangar (fortification)

A sangar (or sanger) (Persian: سنگر) is a temporary fortified position with a breastwork originally constructed of stones,[1] and now built of sandbags, gabions or similar materials.

The term is still frequently used by the British Army, but has now been extended to cover a wider range of small fortified positions.

[3] The word has also occasionally been used as a verb, meaning "to fortify with a sangar": however, this usage appears to have been limited to the first decade of the 20th century.

[3] The term was originally used by the British Indian Army to describe small temporary fortified positions on the North West Frontier and in Afghanistan.

The Independent Monitoring Commission stated immediately after The Troubles in Northern Ireland:[5] The British Army use other terms to classify their sites covered by our definition [of towers and observation posts].

Sangar from the Western Sahara conflict probably dating from the 1980s
Illustration from the Manual of Military Engineering (1905)
Supersangar at the British forward operating base , Price , Gereshk , Afghanistan (photograph taken in 2013 during the War in Afghanistan )