User blog comment:KATANAGOD/Black Ops II's open gameplay explained/@comment-4373501-20120518190803/@comment-356904-20120519143049

There's part of the definition you conveniently forgot to copy from the Wikipedia article:

"generally with the objective of either conquering, liberating or re-establishing control or authority over a territory, forcing the partition of a country, altering the established government or gaining concessions from said government, or a combination thereof."

The objective was not to gain control of the territory, only to attack the naval assets there.