ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Surgical strike

A surgical strike is like playing a game of Operation, but in real life. Just like how you carefully remove pieces from the game without touching the edges, a surgical strike is a very precise military operation where soldiers are sent to a specific location to complete a task without causing damage to anything else.

For example, imagine you have a toy car on a table and you want to remove only the wheels without knocking over any other toys. Now imagine that the table is a country and the toy car is a target that needs to be taken out without hurting anyone or anything else in that country.

In a surgical strike, soldiers use special equipment and weapons to take out the target with as little damage as possible. They have to be very careful and precise, just like the game of Operation.

Surgical strikes are usually used when there is a specific target that needs to be taken out, like a terrorist leader or a weapons facility. It's important to not cause too much damage or hurt innocent people, so surgical strikes are seen as a very controlled and careful military strategy.
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