Zahliote Group

Zahliote Group – ZG
Participant in Lebanese civil war (1975-1990)
Active Until 1978
Groups Lebanese Front, Lebanese Forces
Leaders Aziz Wardah
Headquarters Zahlé
Size 500 fighters
Originated as 100 fighters
Allies Lebanese Front, Lebanese Forces, Lebanese Army, Israel Defense Forces (IDF)
Opponents Lebanese National Movement (LNM), Lebanese Arab Army (LAA), Zgharta Liberation Army (ZLA), Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Syrian Army

The Zahliote Group – ZG, known also as the Groupement Zahliote (GZ) in French, was a small Lebanese Christian militia raised in the Greek-Catholic town of Zahlé in the Beqaa valley, which fought in the Lebanese Civil War from 1975 to 1981.

Origins

The ZG was led by Aziz Wardah, a wealthy banker and entrepreneur, who formed it in 1975 as a movement of middle-class businessmen who contested the rule of the local feudal clans, gathered in the so-called "Seven Families" coalition headed by the Za'im (boss) Joseph Skaff.

Structure and organization

Wardah's Zahliotes, estimated at about 100-500 fighters equipped with small-arms purchased in the black market or taken from Lebanese Army depots and Internal Security Forces (ISF) Police stations, backed by a few gun-trucks or technicals (Willys M38A1 MD jeeps, Toyota Land Cruiser (J40), Land-Rover series II-III and Dodge 1956 Fargo pickups fitted with Heavy machine-guns and recoilless rifles), controlled most of Zahlé until 1978, when they were finally absorbed into the Lebanese Forces.

The Zahliotes in the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1981)

On 28 August 1975, Wardah's Zahliote Group militia clashed at Zahlé with the predominantly Maronite Zgharta Liberation Army (ZLA, a.k.a. the "Marada Brigade") militia led by Tony Frangieh, despite the intervention of Lebanese Army troops in a vain attempt to curb the fighting.[1] Allied with the other rightist Christian factions in the Lebanese Front, Wardah's Zahliotes held their ground successfully against the PLO, the Leftist Muslim Lebanese National Movement (LNM) militias and Lebanese Arab Army (LAA) attempts to take Zahlé in early 1976. On 14 January that year, they defended their town when it was besieged by PLO – LNM forces in retaliation for the fall of the Palestinian refugee camp of Dbayeh in the hands of the Lebanese Front's Christian militias that same day.[2] Although the ZG was integrated into the Lebanese Forces structure in 1978, its former members certainly played a role in the defence of their town on 20 December 1980, when the Free Tigers militia (a.k.a. the "Hannache Group") managed to seize by force the local National Liberal Party (NLP) offices[3][4] and again in March 1981, when it was besieged by the Syrian Army during the Battle of Zahleh.[5]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Hokayem, L'armée libanaise pendant la guerre: un instrument du pouvoir du président de la République (1975-1985) (2012), p. 20.
  2. ↑ Hokayem, L'armée libanaise pendant la guerre: un instrument du pouvoir du président de la République (1975-1985) (2012), p. 21.
  3. ↑ Mclaurin, The battle of Zahle (1986), pp. 6-7.
  4. ↑ Menargues, Les Secrets de la guerre du Liban (2004), p. 57.
  5. ↑ Katz, Russel, and Volstad, Armies in Lebanon 1982-84 (1985), p. 8.

References

  • Alain Menargues, Les Secrets de la guerre du Liban: Du coup d'état de Béchir Gémayel aux massacres des camps palestiniens, Albin Michel, Paris 2004. ISBN 978-2226121271 (in French)
  • Denise Ammoun, Histoire du Liban contemporain: Tome 2 1943-1990, Fayard, Paris 2005. ISBN 978-2-213-61521-9 (in French) –
  • Fawwaz Traboulsi, Identités et solidarités croisées dans les conflits du Liban contemporain; Chapitre 12: L'économie politique des milices: le phénomène mafieux, Thèse de Doctorat d'Histoire – 1993, Université de Paris VIII, 2007. (in French) –
  • Jean Sarkis, Histoire de la guerre du Liban, Presses Universitaires de France - PUF, Paris 1993. ISBN 978-2-13-045801-2 (in French)
  • Joseph Hokayem, L'armée libanaise pendant la guerre: un instrument du pouvoir du président de la République (1975-1985), Lulu.com, Beyrouth 2012. ISBN 9781291036602, 1291036601 (in French) –
  • Samuel M. Katz, Lee E. Russel, and Ron Volstad, Armies in Lebanon 1982-84, Men-at-arms series 165, Osprey Publishing Ltd, London 1985. ISBN 0-85045-602-9
  • R.D. Mclaurin, The battle of Zahle, Aberdeen, MD: U.S. Army Human Engineering Laboratory, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Technical memorandum 8-86, 1986.
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