ataki

Ataki is straightforwardly transitive: the thing attacked is a direct object with no preposition, so ataki la urbon, never the English-flavoured attack on. The instrument takes per. The figurative use for criticism is entirely normal - you can ataki ies ideojn in an article without anyone reaching for a weapon. Atako is the attack, atakanto the attacker, kontrataki to counter-attack. It pairs cleanly with defendi, and the two turn up together often enough to be worth learning as a set.