What is Hezbollah?

Following are facts about Lebanese group Hezbollah, which is set to conduct a prisoner exchange with Israel on Wednesday.

HISTORY

* Hezbollah, meaning "Party of God" in Arabic, shares the Shi'ite Islamist ideology of Iran and was set up with the help of Iranian Revolutionary Guards in 1982 to fight Israeli forces that had invaded Lebanon. Hezbollah still has strong support from Tehran. It is also backed by Damascus. The group is listed as a terrorist organisation by the United States.

* The group fought a 34-day war with Israel in 2006 that cost 1,200 lives in Lebanon and 159 in Israel. The war was sparked by a July 12 cross-border raid in which Hezbollah seized two Israeli soldiers. It said it wanted to use them to negotiate a prisoner exchange. Despite U.N. resolutions and an expanded U.N. peacekeeping force, Hezbollah has rearmed since the war.

* Hezbollah claimed victory over Israel in 2000 when its forces withdrew from mainly Shi'ite south Lebanon.

* Shadowy groups linked to Hezbollah launched suicide attacks on Western targets and took Westerners hostage in Beirut in the 1980s. The most spectacular attack was a suicide bombing that destroyed the U.S. Marine headquarters in Beirut in October 1983, killing 241 servicemen. One group, Islamic Jihad, was thought to be led by Imad Moughniyah, who was Hezbollah's military commander when he was assassinated in Syria on Feb. 13.

HEZBOLLAH TODAY

* It is both a political movement and a guerrilla army. It draws its support from Lebanon's Shi'ite population and has more influence in that community than any other Shi'ite faction.

* Hezbollah entered Lebanese politics more visibly in 2005 after Syrian troops left Lebanon and a coalition of anti-Syrian factions took power following an election which gave Hezbollah 14 seats in the 128-seat parliament.

* Two Hezbollah ministers served in Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's cabinet but quit in November 2006 because the ruling coalition refused to give the opposition veto power in cabinet. Hezbollah and its allies, including the Shi'ite Amal movement and Christian leader Michel Aoun, finally won that demand in May 2008 after Hezbollah-led forces briefly took over Beirut. The group has one minister in the cabinet Siniora formed this month.

* Hezbollah is the dominant military force in Lebanon, stronger than any other faction or the army. It says its arsenal is needed to defend Lebanon from Israel and will only consider giving it up as part of a national defence strategy.

* U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559, sponsored by the United States and France and adopted in September 2004, called for all Lebanese militias to be disbanded and disarmed. Hezbollah, the only declared militia, is defying the measure.

* Hezbollah had long sworn to use its weapons only against Israel. But it turned them on its Lebanese foes in May after its leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, said for the first time this was justified in the face of a threat to Hezbollah's arsenal. (Writing by Tom Perry in Beirut; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

ISRAEL-LEBANON/HEZBOLLAH (FACTBOX)