THE HINDU Editorial Vocabulary- October 20, 2016- Topic 2
After losing Tikrit in April 2015 and Fallujah in June 2016, the Islamic
State has been left with little territory under its control in Iraq. Mosul, the
country’s second largest city, is its last significant bastion. It was where
its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a “caliphate” in June 2014. And it was
the ability of the IS to establish territorial control and run an
administration that qualitatively separated it from other radical jihadi groups
such as al-Qaeda. The capture of Mosul symbolised its effectiveness in combat
against a weakly organised Iraqi army and a sectarian Iraqi state, then under
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. When a coalition of Iraqi armed forces, the
Kurdish Peshmerga, Shia militia groups supported by U.S.-led air strikes and other
special forces marched on Mosul on Monday, the long-planned offensive to defeat
the IS decisively was finally put into action. The plan is for the Peshmerga
and the militias to barricade the city from the east and south, respectively,
while counter-terrorism forces and police enter the city, engage in street
battles and secure it, leading to final capture. It will not be easy, even if
the IS is a much weakened force compared to what it was in 2014.
The offensive to dislodge the estimated 5,000 IS fighters is expected to
last many weeks. Visuals and reports filtering out from the battle zone already
point to the large-scale use of suicide bombers in armoured trucks and cars
taking on the coalition's tanks and advance forces. The million or so residents
of Mosul — the Sunni Arabs among them in particular — who bore the excesses of
the sectarian attacks led by Mr. al-Maliki’s government are ready to rebel
against the IS, but are wary of the Shia militias. This suggests that a
military victory over the IS will not suffice, and the Mosul operation would be
a test of the Iraqi government’s capacity to mend the sectarian conflict that
enabled the rise of the IS in the first place. Other complications too threaten
the operation. The participation of Turkish forces in the attacks has not been
welcomed by Baghdad, as Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has called this a
“transgression of Iraqi sovereignty”. The international efforts in this
operation are focused towards providing air support to the Iraqi forces beyond
the planning but this must not be limited to the military battle alone. The
United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) expects a million people to be displaced
during the conflict and requires international funding to help organise shelter
for them. It is necessary for the UN to look ahead to ease the humanitarian
crisis that could follow after the Mosul battle and help Iraq in its
reconstruction.
Vocabulary
Bastion: the state or feeling of being actively opposed or hostile
to someone or something.
Example: Enmity between Protestants and Catholics
Synonyms: hostility, animosity, antagonism, friction, antipathy, animus, acrimony
Effectiveness: the degree to which something
is successful in producing a desired result; success.
Example: The effectiveness of the treatment
Synonyms: success, productiveness, potency, power, benefit, advantage, value
Combat: fighting between armed forces.
Example: Men killed in combat
Synonyms: battle, fighting, action, hostilities, conflict, war, warfare, deathmatch
Marched: walk in a military manner with a regular measured tread.
Example: Three companies of soldiers marched around the field
Synonyms: stride, walk, troop, step, pace, tread, footslog, slog, tramp, tromp, hike
Offensive: causing someone to feel deeply hurt, upset, or angry.
Example: The allegations made are deeply offensive to us
Synonyms: insulting, insolent, derogatory, disrespectful, hurtful, wounding
Dislodge: knock or force out of position.
Example: The hoofs of their horses dislodged loose stones
Synonyms: remove, force out, drive out, oust, eject, get
rid of, evict
Filtering: process or treat with a filter.
Example: The patient is hooked up to a dialysis machine twice a week to filter out
the cholesterol in the blood
Synonyms: sieve, strain, sift, filtrate, clarify, purify, refine, treat
Armoured: of a military vehicle or ship covered with a tough metal layer as a defense
against attack.
Example: Armored vehicles
Synonyms: steel-plated, ironclad, bulletproof, bombproof, reinforced, toughened
Bore: make (a hole) in something, especially with a revolving
tool.
Example: They bored holes in the sides
Synonyms: drill, pierce, perforate, puncture, punch, cut, tunnel, burrow, mine
Mend: repair (something that is broken or damaged).
Example: Workmen were mending faulty cabling
Synonyms: repair, fix, put back together, piece together, restore, sew
(up), stitch
Sectarian: denoting or concerning a sect or sects.
Example: Ethnic and sectarian differences
Synonyms: factional, separatist, partisan, parti pris, doctrinaire, dogmatic
Reconstruction: the action or process of
reconstructing or being reconstructed.
Example:
The economic
reconstruction of Russia