U.S. forces hit Iraqi Hezbollah bases

Syllabus subtopic: Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India's interests, Indian diaspora.

Prelims and Mains focus: about the conflict in West Asia and its consequences for global geopolitics; about Hezbollah

News: The U.S. has bombed the headquarters of the Iran-backed Iraqi Hezbollah militant group in Iraq and Syria, the Pentagon said on Sunday, following a rocket attack in Iraq that killed an American civilian contractor.

Context: The attack was in response to repeated Kata’ib Hezbollah (KH) attacks on Iraqi bases that host Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) coalition forces, intended to degrade KH’s ability to conduct future attacks against OIR coalition forces.

What is Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR)?

It is the U.S. military's operational name for the military intervention against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIL, in the vernacular, Daesh), including both the campaign in Iraq and the campaign in Syria.

Since 21 August 2016, the U.S. Army's XVIII Airborne Corps has been responsible for Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF—OIR).

The campaign is primarily waged by American air forces in support of local allies, most prominently the Iraqi security forces and Syrian Democratic Forces.

Combat ground troops, mostly special forces and artillery, have also been deployed, especially in Iraq. 75-80% of the airstrikes have been conducted by the military of the United States, with the other 20-25% by the United Kingdom, France, Turkey, Canada, the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan.

About Hezbollah

Hezbollah is a Shia Islamist political party and militant group based in Lebanon.
It was founded in the early 1980s as part of an Iranian effort to aggregate a variety of militant Lebanese Shia groups into a unified organization.
Hezbollah acts as a proxy for Iran in the on-going Iran–Israel proxy conflict. Iran also supported Hezbollah during the South Lebanon conflict (1985–2000).

Source: The Hindu

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