Rerurn of the DESERT FALCON

摘要

Codenamed Operation Desert Falcon (ODF), Belgium's latest F-16AM mission against ISIS (IS) is set to last until September this year. As part of the Global Coalition ,and as per the United Nations Resolution 2249 adopted by the Security Council on November 20, 2015, the present mission, which began operations on October 1, 2020, is expected to prevent and suppress terrorist acts committed by IS and other groups. When IS initiated a major ground offensive to occupy large parts of Iraq and Syria in January 2014 - proclaiming a worldwide caliphate only six months later - the US Secretary of State invited NATO members to become part of the Global Coalition against the group. Today, the Coalition comprises 82 members: 77 states and five international organisations. It is committed to fight IS in its military campaign codenamed Combined Joint Task Force - Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR), which was established on October 17, 2014 on the initiative of the US Department of Defense. The Coalition also aims at tackling IS in the civil domain by restoring essential public services in liberated areas, preventing the flow of foreign terrorist fighters across borders and countering the group's propaganda, its financing and its economic infrastructure.