Editing Hezbollah (section)

=== 1980s ===
{{Main|Lebanese civil war|South Lebanon conflict (1985–2000)}}

Hezbollah emerged in [[South Lebanon]] during a consolidation of [[Shia Islam in Lebanon|Shia]] militias as a rival to the older [[Amal Movement]]. Hezbollah played a significant role in the Lebanese civil war, opposing [[Multinational Force in Lebanon|American forces in 1982–83]] and opposing Amal and [[Syria]] during the 1985–88 [[War of the Camps]]. However, Hezbollah's early primary focus was ending Israel's occupation of southern Lebanon<ref name="bbc-hi-me2"/> following Israel's 1982 invasion and siege of Beirut.<ref>{{cite book |last=Shlaim |first=Avi |date=2001 |title=The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World |publisher=[[W.W. Norton]] |isbn=978-0-393-32112-8 |chapter=The Lebanese Quagmire 1981–1984 |pages=384–423}}</ref> Amal, the main Lebanese Shia political group, initiated [[guerrilla warfare]]. In 2006, former Israeli prime minister [[Ehud Barak]] stated, "When we entered Lebanon ... there was no Hezbollah. We were accepted with perfumed rice and flowers by the Shia in the south. It was our presence there that created Hezbollah."<ref name=AN33>{{cite book|last=Norton|first=Augustus|title=Hezbollah: A Short History|year=2009|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0-691-13124-5|page=33|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x0MZOnnu8qcC&q=Hezbollah%20a%20short%20history&pg=PP1}}</ref>

Hezbollah waged an [[asymmetric war]] using [[Istishhad|suicide attacks]] against the [[Israel Defense Forces]] (IDF) and Israeli targets outside of Lebanon.<ref name="pape">{{cite book |last=Pape |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Pape |title=Dying to win: the strategic logic of suicide terrorism |location=New York |publisher=Random House |isbn=978-1-4000-6317-8 |year=2005 |url=https://archive.org/details/dyingtowinstrate00pape }} Specifically: "Suicide Terrorist Campaigns, 1980–2003", Appendix 1. (p. 253 of Australian paperback edition, published by Scribe Publications)</ref> Hezbollah is reputed to have been among the first Islamic resistance groups in the Middle East to use the tactics of suicide bombing, assassination, and capturing foreign soldiers,<ref name="nybooks"/> as well as murders<ref name="HCR190" /> and hijackings.<ref name="Timeline: Lebanon">{{cite news|title=Lebanon profile|date=3 September 2013|access-date=5 September 2013|publisher=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-14649284}}</ref> Hezbollah also employed more conventional military tactics and weaponry, notably [[Katyusha rocket launcher|Katyusha rockets]] and other missiles.<ref name="HCR190">{{cite web |url=http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c101:H.CON.RES.190: |publisher=[[The Library of Congress]] |date=4 August 1989 |access-date=8 August 2006 |title=Expressing the sense of the Congress over the reported murder of Lieutenant Colonel William Higgins and Hezbollah-sponsored terrorism. |author=H. CON. RES. 190, 1st session 101st congress |archive-date=4 July 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160704232744/http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c101:H.CON.RES.190: }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Harnden |first=Tony |title=Video games attract young to Hizbollah |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/02/21/whizb21.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/02/21/ixworld.html |access-date=20 October 2012 |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |date=21 February 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060721222037/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2004%2F02%2F21%2Fwhizb21.xml&sSheet=%2Fnews%2F2004%2F02%2F21%2Fixworld.html |archive-date=21 July 2006 |location=London }}</ref> At the end of the Lebanese Civil War in 1990, despite the [[Taif Agreement]] asking for the "disbanding of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias", [[Syria]], which controlled Lebanon at that time, allowed Hezbollah to maintain their arsenal and control Shia areas along the border with Israel.<ref name="In the Party of God" />