Quote Originally Posted by Ramil
Let me check if I got this right: BEFORE you enter the village where there may be 'partisans' you KNOW all that you've just said. You know that once you've entered there will be no other choice than either to find these 'partisans' or exterminate all population. Let's suppose that you wouldn't find partisans (they're off somewhere... raiding your HQ for example). You kill everyone in the village, but this won't hide the fact that you've been there and you should expect a retaliation attempt anyway. It appears that the only possible 'human' and 'tactical' choice would be not to enter the village but lay an ambush nearby and wait for the real enemy. Of course if such means are necessary then why bother with formalities? Why not call an airstrike and level the village to the ground?
When you've been sent to eliminate the insurgency (зачистка территории от бандформирований), it doesn't make sense to trot the jungle in search of the partisan bands. That will take forever. Instead, you would trace the partisans by their supply chain. So, you have to go village by village and see if the village is collaborating with the partisans.

1. If the village is not collaborating -> leave the village and go to the other one (that's usually the majority of cases)

2. If the village is currently harbouring partisans -> eliminate the resistance (call the airborne help if necessary)

3. If the village is collaborating but is not currently harbouring partisans -> interrogate the peaceful villagers (by terrorizing them or by the other means) -> locate the insurgency bases and eliminate them (again, call the airborne help if necessary)

There's no need to exterminate all village population as you said. However, the fierce insurgency resistance might have that consequence.

Laying an ambush is tactically possible, but (because it might take long time) is usually impractical as you don't know who is ambushing whom after a while. What if the partisans are currently watching your back while you have your weapon pointing the other way?