pitched battle

I was recently shown footage by police at a local gendarmerie of what looked like another pitched battle on a beach at dawn, with riot-shielded police defending themselves against a hail of rocks.

The Houthis, who started out as anti-government rebels, had spent years in pitched battles with the Yemeni state; in 2014 they overran the capital, Sanaa, then put their sights on the rest of the country.

In the first pitched battle of the civil war that shaped a newly independent Ireland, seven centuries of history burned.

That is more reminiscent of a pitched battle in 1984 that pitted some of the most powerful Senate Republicans against one another in a storied showdown to win the top job.

Since then, the Taliban have been fighting pitched battles against ISIS-K in Afghanistan.