Extremely aggressive military operations (5,7)

I believe the answer is:

flank attacks

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'extremely aggressive military' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I can't tell whether this works.

'operations' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'operations' could be 'attacks' (attack is a kind of operation) and 'attacks' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'flank' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

I've seen this clue in The Globe and Mail.

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