Islamic World War (Malformedmule)

The Islamic World War, also known as the Great Islamic War or the Middle East War, or (disputed) World War III (abbreviated WWIII) was a widespread armed conflict that occurred in much of the Islamic world from March 3, 2020 to November 24, 2021. Beginning in Lebanon, fighting quickly spread to Syria, Israel, Lebanon, Egypt, Sudan, Iraq and Iran.

Background
The background to this conflict can be traced back to the Iranian revolution of 1979, when Shi'a islamists took power in the Islamic Republic of Iran, which was strictly anti-western and anti-American. Tensions between western nations and Shi'a islamists rose in the Syrian Civil War of 2011 to 2014, which ended in a victory for the Syrian government. As Hezbollah gained support in Lebanon, the United States and its allies became increasingly fearful of it seeing political power.

Fighting begins
The conflict initially began after Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shi'ite political party and militant group, organized a successful coup d'état in Lebanon, establishing the Islamic republic of Lebanon on December 28, 2019. This saw criticism from many western nations, who called the new government "illegitimate" and made accusations of state sponsored terror. As a result, a coalition of nations took military action, deploying aircraft, naval forces, and ground forces in Lebanon to "restore order" in the region, despite warnings of retaliation by Syria and Iran, who supported the new government. Coalition forces arrived in Lebanon on March 3, 2020. Syria and Iran deployed troops and aircraft to counter coalition forces on March 26, calling themselves anti-coalition forces.

The war spreads
On July 3, 2020, Iranian and Syrian forces launched an attack on Israel, infuriating the United States. As a result, Iraq began attacking Iran and the war became increasingly widespread. After five months of fighting and its allies distracted in other battles, the Lebanese government fell on August 11, 2020. Despite this, Hezbollah continued to fight coalition forces in attempt to regain control of the Lebanon. Pakistan entered the war on the side of coalition forces on September 15 and began aggressive airstrikes on Iran, advancing on its eastern border as the Iranian air forces were busy with their own airstrikes against Iraq. Primarily Sunni Al Quaeda militant groups also began fighting Iranian government forces. Coalition forces also began sending ground forces to Syria in attempt to defeat its relatively strong army. In fear of losing Syria, its only nation ally in the war, Iran also sent ground forces to defend the Syrian government. On January 9, 2021, Sudan's president Omar al-Bashir announced that Sudan would be entering the war against coalition forces, saying "We will not stand for this Western imperialism". Bashir launched an attack on Egypt, which other coalition forces defended.

The war comes to a close
When Turkey and Japan declared war on anti-coalition forces in April 2021, it began to look like anti-coalition forces were losing ground. Pakistani-led forces continued to advance in eastern Iran and Syria's naval fleet were almost destroyed by other coalition forces. On July 24, 2021, Pakistani forces arrived in the Iranian capital of Tehran, and the Islamic Republic of Iran surrendered. Coalition forces were now able to focus their war effort on Syria and Sudan, and on September 2, 2021, Syria was captured. Coalition forces launched a full scale invasion of Sudan on September 20, and two months later on Novermber 24, 2021, the Sudanese government fell, officially ending the war.

Aftermath
The Islamic world had changed drastically by the end of the Islamic World War, with democracies being established in the predominantly authoritarian countries of Lebanon, Iran, Syria and Sudan. Additionally, many countries, such as Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Israel, and Sudan, suffered significant financial and human losses, and many cities had been destroyed by bombings and airstrikes. The defeated countries were split into occupational zones, with Israel, the United States and Saudi Arabia occupying Syria, the United States occupying Lebanon, the United Kingdom and Egypt occupying Sudan, and the United States and Pakistan occupying Iran. Eventually Syria, Lebanon, Sudan and US-occupied Iran became secular democracies while Pakistani-occupied Iran became the Iranian Islamic Republic (known as East Iran), a Sunni Islamic democracy which closely aligned itself with Pakistan.

Naming disputes
The most common name for this armed conflict is the "Islamic World War", however it is also often referred to as the "Great Islamic War". Some also regard it as a third world war or World War III due to its high number of belligerents and widespread location. However many historians argue that it was not a world war as the combatants were not equal in strength and none of the anti-coalition forces had any global power militarily or economically.