Zgharta Liberation Army

Al-Marada/ZLA militiamen were provided with a variety of small-arms, including Lee-Enfield and MAS-36 bolt-action rifles,[11] MAS-49,[11] M1 Garand (or its Italian-produced copy, the Beretta Model 1952), M14[12] and SKS[11] semi-automatic rifles, plus MAT-49 and Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine guns. Assault rifles and carbines consisted of M16A1,[11] FN FAL,[11] Heckler & Koch G3,[13][11] Vz. 58, AK-47 and AKM assault rifles[11] (other variants included the Zastava M70, Zastava M80, and former East German MPi-KMS-72 assault rifles). Shotguns consisted of Winchester Model 1200, Franchi SPAS-12, and Franchi SPAS-15 semi-automatic models. Sniper rifles were also used, and models comprised the Dragunov SVD-63, Tabuk, Zastava M76/M78 and SSG 82. Handguns included MAB PA-15 pistols, FN P35, SIG Sauer P220 and Glock 19 pistols.

Squad weapons consisted of Chatellerault FM Mle 1924/29, Bren Mk. I .303 (7.7mm), FN MAG, Rheinmetall MG 3, VZ 59, Zastava M77, and PK/PKM (variants included the Chinese Type 80 and the Yugoslav Zastava M84) light machine guns. Heavier Browning M2HB .50 Cal, DShKM, Type 77 and NSV (or its Yugoslav variant, the Zastava M87) machine guns were employed as platoon and company weapons, but could also be found mounted on APCs and technicals.

Portable anti-tank weapons and guided missile systems were also widely employed, comprising RPG-7[14] and M80 Zolja anti-tank rocket launchers, M2 Carl Gustaf 84mm and M67 90mm anti-tank recoilless rifles, and MILAN and BGM-71 TOW anti-tank missiles. Crew-served and indirect fire weapons included L16 81mm mortars, plus SPG-9 73mm, B-10 82mm, M40 106mm and L6 Wombat 120mm recoilless rifles (often mounted on technicals).

The Al-Marada fielded since January 1976 a mechanized corps made of ex-Lebanese Army M113 armored personnel carriers[15] and gun trucks or 'Technicals'. The latter consisted of commandeered Jeep CJ-5 and Jeep CJ-8 (civilian versions of the Willys M38A1 MD jeep),[16] Land-Rover series II–III, Santana Series III (Spanish-produced version of the Land-Rover series III), Toyota Land Cruiser (J40),[17] Toyota Land Cruiser (J44),[18] Dodge Power Wagon W200, Dodge D series (3rd generation), GMC Sierra Custom K25/K30, Chevrolet C-10/C-15 Cheyenne and Chevrolet C-20 Scottsdale light pickup trucks armed with heavy machine guns, recoilless rifles and anti-aircraft autocannons. For logistical support, the ZLA relied on Range Rover first generation Sport utility vehicles, Toyota Land Cruiser (J42) hardtop light pickups, Chevrolet C-50 medium-duty, Dodge F600 medium-duty and GMC C4500 medium-duty trucks, and GMC C7500 heavy-duty cargo trucks.

Yugoslav Zastava M55 20mm, Soviet ZPU (ZPU-1, ZPU-2, ZPU-4) 14.5mm,[19] and ZU-23-2 23mm AA autocannons (mostly mounted on technicals and heavier transport trucks) were employed in both air defense and direct fire support roles. These light Anti-Aircraft pieces were either seized from Lebanese Army stocks, acquired on the black market or provided by Syria.

They also maintained a small 'naval' branch equipped with some Zodiac rubber inflatable boats and converted civilian fishing craft armed with heavy machine guns and anti-aircraft autocannons, being used as a shock force for both military and barratry operations.

The small ZLA entered the civil war only in July 1975, in response to a series of attacks in the Sunni Muslim-dominated northern port city of Tripoli on shops and offices owned by Christians from Zgharta by local Muslim militias.[21] On 28 August 1975, the ZLA clashed again at Tripoli with the local Sunni militias, but also at Zahlé with the local Greek-Catholic Zahliote Group (ZG) militia, despite the intervention of Lebanese Army troops in a vain attempt to curb the fighting.[22] In October that year, ZLA militiamen were heavily committed in the Battle of the Hotels in Beirut, though later on 14 January 1976 they were rushed to defend Zgharta, which was besieged by PLO – Lebanese National Movement (LNM) forces in retaliation for the fall of the Palestinian refugee camp of Dbayeh in the hands of the Lebanese Front's Christian militias earlier that same day.[23] Deployed again to Beirut in March 1976, they assisted the hard-pressed Republican Guard battalion in the defense of the Presidential Palace in the Baabda District from a two-pronged combined PLO – LNM – Lebanese Arab Army (LAA) assault, though prior to the attack President Suleiman Frangieh had decamped to the safety of Zouk Mikael, near Jounieh, and later to Kfour in the Keserwan District.[24][25]

Despite having joined in January 1976 the Lebanese Front alliance that gathered the main rightist Christian parties and their militias, the Frangiehs close ties to Syria (Suleiman was a personal friend of Syrian President Hafez al-Assad), along with their bitter political squabbling with the Gemayel clan – leaders of the Kataeb Party or 'Phalange' – and their disagreements with the other Christian leaders over their tactical alliance with Israel, prompted them to break from the Lebanese Front in 1977, an act that would ultimately led to the tragic events of the following year.[26]

After Tony Frangieh was killed in the Ehden massacre perpetrated by the Lebanese Forces (LF) in June 1978,[27][28][29][30][31] he was replaced in the militia's command by his younger brother Robert Frangieh, later succeeded by his nephew Suleiman Frangieh Jr. in 1982.

In the months immediately after the Ehden killings, the Frangiehs were not only able to prevent the ZLA of being totally destroyed or absorbed into the Lebanese Forces, but also succeeded in ruthlessly driving the latter out of the Koura District by the end of the 1970s, kidnapping or slaughtering nearly 100 Phalange' members and forcing the remainder 25,000 either to flee the region or go underground.[32][33] It has also been suspected that the Al-Marada/ZLA were behind the assassinations of Bashir Gemayel's infant daughter and bodyguards by a car bomb explosion in February 1979[34] and later of Bashir himself in September 1982, although the degree of involvement of the Zgharta-based militia on any of these attacks remains unclear. After 1978, the Frangiehs switched their allegiance to the LNM camp and then to Syria, even lending their support to Syrian Army units at east Beirut against the Christian militias and the Army of Free Lebanon (AFL) during the Hundred Days' War. They joined in July 1983 the Lebanese National Salvation Front (LNSF), subsequently supporting in 1988–1990 the Syrian-sponsored Taif Agreement and the parliament-based provisional government of Sunni Prime-Minister Selim Al-Hoss against General Michel Aoun's Maronite-dominated military interim government.

Pushed to the sidelines for the rest of the civil war, the Al-Marada/ZLA was able to remain active thanks to Syrian support and although its numbers dwindled to 1,600 fighters by the mid-1980s, the Al-Marada managed to hold on to the 'Northern Canton'. On July 11, 1984, the Al-Marada/ZLA clashed with the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) militia forces for the control of the Christian villages of Kousba, Kfaraakka, Bsarma, Dahr-al-Ain and several others in the Koura District, with the ZLA eventually managing to drive out the SSNP and assert their dominance over the entire region until the end of the war. It was also alleged that they received the tacit backing from a contingent of unspecified number from the 1,700 men-strong Lebanese Army's Seventh Brigade stationed at Byblos, being regarded as loyal to former president Suleiman Frangieh.[35]