The resistance group Hizbullah ('Party of God') formed in 1982 in response to Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, and were instrumental in eventually forcing Israel to withdraw its troops altogether - thus ending a twenty-two-year-old military occupation.Many armed factions had sprung up in the face of Lebanon's descent into chaos, but few were as organised, disciplined, persistent and civic-minded as Hizbullah. In the 1990s, after many years functioning as both a guerrilla movement targeting the Israeli military on Lebanese soil and as a social-support provider to Lebanese victims of war, Hizbullah moved into mainstream parliamentary politics.Despite US condemnation of Hizbullah as a 'terrorist group', the party has never advocated attacking non-military targets, and was quick to condemn the events of September 11. Today they remain a force to be reckoned with on the Lebanese political scene.