[1] A swift and targeted attack with the aim of minimum collateral damage to the nearby areas and civilians is a surgical strike.
The bombing of Baghdad during the initial stages of the 2003 invasion of Iraq by US forces, known as "shock and awe" is an example of a coordinated surgical strike, where government buildings and military targets were systematically attacked by US aircraft in an attempt to cripple the Ba'athist controlled Iraqi government under Saddam Hussein.
[5] Israel's Entebbe raid in 1976, through which Israeli passengers were freed from a hijacked plane that landed in Uganda, is considered a successful surgical strike.
Even though it did not involve taking out a specific military target, the operation was carried out deep inside foreign territory and the IDF commandos travelled 5,000 miles from start to finish without engaging any other forces or causing any collateral damage to the country where the operation took place, thus befitting the term.
[citation needed] The United States carried out numerous surgical strikes against Al-Qaeda targets in Afghanistan using cruise missiles.