Lebanese National Movement
Encyclopedia
The Lebanese National Movement (LNM) (Arabic: الحركة الوطنية اللبنانية, Al-Harakat al-Wataniyya al-Lubnaniyya) or Mouvement National Libanais (MNL) in French
, was a front of parties and organizations active during the early years of the Lebanese Civil War
. It was headed by Kamal Jumblatt
, a prominent Druze
leader of the Progressive Socialist Party
(PSP).The Vice-President was Inaam Raad leader of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party
. The general secretary of the LNM was Mohsen Ibrahim, leader of the Communist Action Organization in Lebanon
.
The LNM was one of two main coalitions during the first round of fighting in the Lebanese Civil War, the other being the militias of mainly Christian
Lebanese Front
which comprises the Phalange
, the National Liberal Party
and others; as well as parts of the Maronite-dominated central government.
. It was reorganized as the Lebanese National Movement (LNM) in the 1970s, and led by Kamal Jumblatt
as the main force on the anti-government side in the early years of the Lebanese Civil War
.
Among the members were the Progressive Socialist Party
(PSP),the Syrian Social Nationalist Party
, the Lebanese Communist Party
(LCP) and several Nasserist
groups. It was also joined by Palestinian
factions based in Lebanon's refugee camp
s, mainly from the Rejectionist Front
.
, although the fairly obvious sectarian appeal of Jumblatt's Progressive Socialist Party
(PSP) and some of the Sunni Arab nationalist organizations in some cases made this claim debatable. However, to say that the LNM was a Muslim
organization would be a gross oversimplification. Its main ideological positions were: the abrogation of sectarianism, political and social reforms, the clear proclamation of the Arab identity of Lebanon
, and increased support for the Palestinians. Soon after the outbreak of the war, it announces the creation of an executive structure, "the central political council".
Among the participants in the LNM were the Lebanese Communist Party
(LCP), the Communist Action Organization (CAO), the PSP, the Syrian Social Nationalist Party
(SSNP), both a Ba'ath Party branch and a Iraqi Ba'ath Party branch, al-Mourabitoun
(a Nasserite
group) and several other minor Nasserite groupings. Several Palestinian organizations joined the LNM, notably many from the Rejectionist Front
. Both the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
(PFLP) and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine
(DFLP) were active participants.
– RCG, the Lebanese Revolutionnary Party – LRP, the Front of Patriotic Christians – PFC, the Democratic Lebanese Movement – DLM, the Movement of Arab Lebanon – MAL, the Arab Revolutionary Movement – ARM, the Partisans of the Revolution, the Vanguards of Popular Action – VPA, the Organization of Arab Youth – OAY, the Units of the Arab Call – UAC, the Movement of Arab Revolution – MAR, the Sixth of February Movement
, the 24 October Movement
– 24 OM, the Lebanese Movement in Support of Fatah
– LMSF, the Assyrian Assault Battalion – AAB, the Knights of Ali
, the Black Panthers, etc. Most of them were marginal political organizations of revolutionary
or populist
trend (Arab nationalist, Libertarian-Anarchist, Liberal
-Idealist, radical Socialist, Marxist-Leninist, Trotskyist, or Maoist) that emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and despite their rather limited base of support, they were quite active. Anti-status quo, Pan-Arabist, and pro-Palestinian
in policy, they strived for a social revolution that would transform Lebanese society, therefore sharing the same objectives as the leading LNM secular parties
– the recognition of Lebanon
as an Arab country
and unwavering support for the PLO.
However, apart this minority of committed idealists, the vast majority of the remainder ‘movements’ were actually façades or ‘shops’ (Arabic: dakakin) – slightly politicised neighbourhood militias operating under grandiose pseudo-revolutionary labels – set up by PLO factions (mainly Fatah
) in a misguided effort to widen its base of local support among the unemployed Lebanese urban youth.
In most cases, their small poorly-disciplined, ill-equipped militia establishments were ad-hoc formations made of lightly armed and largely untrained Christian
or Muslim
youths that rarely surpassed the 100-300 fighters’ mark – about the size of an understrength company
or battalion
. Some groupings were lucky enough to possess a few jeeps or pick-up trucks
fitted with HMGs and rocket launchers but others, for the most part, fought on foot as light infantry
, with small-arms pilfered from the Government forces, acquired on the black market or obtained via the Palestinian factions. Those groups either unable or unwilling to raise their own militias played only a political role, keeping themselves out of the 1975-76 savage street battles and sectarian killings, with some of their militants preferring instead to join the medical relief agencies organized by the LNM. The decline of the LNM in the late 1970s, culminating in its collapse in the aftermath of the Israeli invasion of June 1982
, sounded the death toll for many of the minor Lebanese leftist organizations. As the war progressed, many of these small factions – at least the more politically-oriented ones – were destroyed in the violent power struggles of the 1980s. For the most part forced to go underground, some evolved to Islamic fundamentalist groups, whilst the less politicized simply degenerated into criminal street-gangs
that engaged in assassinations, theft, smuggling, and extortion. As a result, only a small fraction of the truly ideological-committed groupings did manage to survive the war to re-emerge in the 1990s as politically active organizations.
) each had 5,000 men; the SSNP militia had 4,000 men; and the pro-Iraqi Baathists, the pro-Syria Baathists, and al-Mourabitoun
militia 3,000 each. The others militias shared the remainder.
Eventually, this number was due to increase in the following months with the inclusion of 23,900 Palestinian guerrilla fighters from both the Rejectionist Front
(RF) and mainstream PLO factions, later joined by 4,400 Lebanese regular soldiers from the Lebanese Arab Army (LAA) led by Lt. Ahmed al-Khatib who went over to the LNM-PLO side in January 1976. In the end the LNM-PLO-LAA combined military forces reached an impressive total of 46,900 left-wing troops by March that year, aligned against the 15,000-18,000 right-wing troops their Lebanese Front
adversaries were able to muster.
, Libya
, Iraq
and Southern Yemen, in addition to Palestinian support; besides lending their political backing and contributing with their organizational skills, experienced Palestinian cadres from RF and PLO groups provided weapons, equipment, and in many cases, military leadership to the Lebanese leftist militias. In addition, they also provided training, which was conducted at the refugee camps in the major cities or at PLO bases in southern Lebanon, mainly in the Beqaa Valley
(aka “Fatahland”).
(PLO), and by early 1976 the LNM controlled 80% of Lebanon's territory. But as its relations with Damascus
deteriorated, the pro-Syria Baath branch, the Amal Movement
, and an important SSNP faction left the movement or halted their participation.
In June 1976, the Syrian Army, fearing that a Palestinian victory would weaken its own strategic position, received a request from the Lebanese Front
to intervene on their behalf. After strong initial resistance, the LNM/PLO forces began losing ground, and once the Arab countries eventually approved the Syrian intervention after the Cairo
and Riyadh
conferences, the common forces accepted a cease-fire. The Syrian forces then took on the role of a deterrent force, the "Arab Deterrent Forces" (ADF), between the belligerents. In 1977, Walid Jumblatt
became the head of the LNM after the murder of his resigning father, Kamal, in an ambush widely accredited pro-Syria Palestinian militants working for Syrian intelligence. Despite this, Walid aligned himself with Syria, and maintained a good working relationship with Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad
(who had shared with his father a mutual distrust).
In 1978 the Israel
i Operation Litani
in southern Lebanon was partly directed against LNM militias, then fighting alongside the PLO after relations improved with Syria. In June 1982, the Movement was virtually dissolved after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, and replaced by The Lebanese National Resistance Front , which commenced resistance operations against the Israeli Army in September of that same year.
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, was a front of parties and organizations active during the early years of the Lebanese Civil War
Lebanese Civil War
The Lebanese Civil War was a multifaceted civil war in Lebanon. The war lasted from 1975 to 1990 and resulted in an estimated 150,000 to 230,000 civilian fatalities. Another one million people were wounded, and today approximately 350,000 people remain displaced. There was also a mass exodus of...
. It was headed by Kamal Jumblatt
Kamal Jumblatt
Kamal Jumblatt ; was an important Lebanese politician. He was the main leader of the anti-government forces in the Lebanese Civil War until his assassination in 1977. He is the father of the present Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt.-Family background and education:Kamal Jumblatt was born in...
, a prominent Druze
Druze
The Druze are an esoteric, monotheistic religious community, found primarily in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan, which emerged during the 11th century from Ismailism. The Druze have an eclectic set of beliefs that incorporate several elements from Abrahamic religions, Gnosticism, Neoplatonism...
leader of the Progressive Socialist Party
Progressive Socialist Party
The Progressive Socialist Party or PSP , also known as Parti Socialiste Progressiste in French, is a political party in Lebanon. Its current leader is Walid Jumblatt...
(PSP).The Vice-President was Inaam Raad leader of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party
Syrian Social Nationalist Party
The Syrian Social Nationalist Party , is a secular nationalist political party in Lebanon and Syria. It advocates the establishment of a Syrian nation state spanning the Fertile Crescent, including present day Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, the Palestinian Territories, Israel, Cyprus, Kuwait,...
. The general secretary of the LNM was Mohsen Ibrahim, leader of the Communist Action Organization in Lebanon
Communist Action Organization in Lebanon
The Communist Action Organization in Lebanon is a Marxist-Leninist political party and former militia group in Lebanon.- Membership :The OACL was one of Lebanon's few multi-sectarian parties, with Christian, Muslim and Druze members, but its main base was among Shi'a Muslims. OACL played a major...
.
The LNM was one of two main coalitions during the first round of fighting in the Lebanese Civil War, the other being the militias of mainly Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
Lebanese Front
Lebanese Front
The Lebanese Front or Front libanais in French, also known as the "Kufur Front", was a coalition of mainly Christian parties formed in 1976, during the Lebanese Civil War...
which comprises the Phalange
Kataeb Party
The Lebanese Phalanges , better known in English as the Phalange , is a traditional right-wing Lebanese political party. Although it is officially secular, it is mainly supported by Maronite Christians. The party played a major role in the Lebanese War...
, the National Liberal Party
National Liberal Party (Lebanon)
The National Liberal Party is a center-right political party in Lebanon, established by President Camille Chamoun in 1958...
and others; as well as parts of the Maronite-dominated central government.
Composition
The Lebanese National Movement had its genesis in a previous organization, the Front of National and Progressive Parties and Forces – FNPPF (Arabic: Jabhat al-Ahzab wa al-Quwa al-Taqaddumiyya wa al-Wataniyya) or "Front for Progressive Parties and National Forces" (FPPNF), also known as the "Revisionist Front", an alliance of anti-status quo political parties originally formed in 1969, which later run to the 1972 general elections on a reformist secular platform. Overwhelmingly left-wing and Pan-Arabist in both its composition and orientation, the LNM claimed to be a "democratic, progressive and non-sectarian" broad organization that gatherered parties and organizations opposing the Maronite-dominated sectarian order in LebanonLebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
. It was reorganized as the Lebanese National Movement (LNM) in the 1970s, and led by Kamal Jumblatt
Kamal Jumblatt
Kamal Jumblatt ; was an important Lebanese politician. He was the main leader of the anti-government forces in the Lebanese Civil War until his assassination in 1977. He is the father of the present Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt.-Family background and education:Kamal Jumblatt was born in...
as the main force on the anti-government side in the early years of the Lebanese Civil War
Lebanese Civil War
The Lebanese Civil War was a multifaceted civil war in Lebanon. The war lasted from 1975 to 1990 and resulted in an estimated 150,000 to 230,000 civilian fatalities. Another one million people were wounded, and today approximately 350,000 people remain displaced. There was also a mass exodus of...
.
Among the members were the Progressive Socialist Party
Progressive Socialist Party
The Progressive Socialist Party or PSP , also known as Parti Socialiste Progressiste in French, is a political party in Lebanon. Its current leader is Walid Jumblatt...
(PSP),the Syrian Social Nationalist Party
Syrian Social Nationalist Party
The Syrian Social Nationalist Party , is a secular nationalist political party in Lebanon and Syria. It advocates the establishment of a Syrian nation state spanning the Fertile Crescent, including present day Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, the Palestinian Territories, Israel, Cyprus, Kuwait,...
, the Lebanese Communist Party
Lebanese Communist Party
The Lebanese Communist Party – LCP or Parti communiste libanais in French, is a communist political party in Lebanon...
(LCP) and several Nasserist
Nasserism
Nasserism is an Arab nationalist political ideology based on the thinking of the former Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser. It was a major influence on pan-Arab politics in the 1950s and 1960s, and continues to have significant resonance throughout the Arab World to this day. It also...
groups. It was also joined by Palestinian
Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
factions based in Lebanon's refugee camp
Refugee camp
A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees. Hundreds of thousands of people may live in any one single camp. Usually they are built and run by a government, the United Nations, or international organizations, or NGOs.Refugee camps are generally set up in an impromptu...
s, mainly from the Rejectionist Front
Rejectionist Front
The Rejectionist Front or Front of the Palestinian Forces Rejecting Solutions of Surrender was a political coalition formed in 1974 by radical Palestinian factions who rejected the Ten Point Program adopted by the Palestine Liberation Organization in its 12th Palestinian National Congress ...
.
Membership
Its membership was overwhelmingly left-wing and professed to be secularSecularism
Secularism is the principle of separation between government institutions and the persons mandated to represent the State from religious institutions and religious dignitaries...
, although the fairly obvious sectarian appeal of Jumblatt's Progressive Socialist Party
Progressive Socialist Party
The Progressive Socialist Party or PSP , also known as Parti Socialiste Progressiste in French, is a political party in Lebanon. Its current leader is Walid Jumblatt...
(PSP) and some of the Sunni Arab nationalist organizations in some cases made this claim debatable. However, to say that the LNM was a Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
organization would be a gross oversimplification. Its main ideological positions were: the abrogation of sectarianism, political and social reforms, the clear proclamation of the Arab identity of Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
, and increased support for the Palestinians. Soon after the outbreak of the war, it announces the creation of an executive structure, "the central political council".
Among the participants in the LNM were the Lebanese Communist Party
Lebanese Communist Party
The Lebanese Communist Party – LCP or Parti communiste libanais in French, is a communist political party in Lebanon...
(LCP), the Communist Action Organization (CAO), the PSP, the Syrian Social Nationalist Party
Syrian Social Nationalist Party
The Syrian Social Nationalist Party , is a secular nationalist political party in Lebanon and Syria. It advocates the establishment of a Syrian nation state spanning the Fertile Crescent, including present day Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, the Palestinian Territories, Israel, Cyprus, Kuwait,...
(SSNP), both a Ba'ath Party branch and a Iraqi Ba'ath Party branch, al-Mourabitoun
Al-Mourabitoun
The Independent Nasserite Movement or al-Murabitoun , also termed variously Mouvement des Nasséristes Indépendants ' in French, Independent Nasserite Organization , or Movement of Independent Nasserists, is a Nasserist political party in Lebanon.-Political...
(a Nasserite
Nasserism
Nasserism is an Arab nationalist political ideology based on the thinking of the former Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser. It was a major influence on pan-Arab politics in the 1950s and 1960s, and continues to have significant resonance throughout the Arab World to this day. It also...
group) and several other minor Nasserite groupings. Several Palestinian organizations joined the LNM, notably many from the Rejectionist Front
Rejectionist Front
The Rejectionist Front or Front of the Palestinian Forces Rejecting Solutions of Surrender was a political coalition formed in 1974 by radical Palestinian factions who rejected the Ten Point Program adopted by the Palestine Liberation Organization in its 12th Palestinian National Congress ...
. Both the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is a Palestinian Marxist-Leninist organisation founded in 1967. It has consistently been the second-largest of the groups forming the Palestine Liberation Organization , the largest being Fatah...
(PFLP) and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine
The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine is a Palestinian Marxist-Leninist, secular political and military organization. It is also frequently referred to as the Democratic Front, or al-Jabha al-Dimuqratiyah...
(DFLP) were active participants.
Minor groups
Above and beyond this, an ‘alphabet soup’ of other lesser-known smaller Parties were associated with the LNM, namely the Revolutionary Communist GroupRevolutionary Communist Group
The Revolutionary Communist Group is a Marxist-Leninist political organisation based in the United Kingdom which is avowedly socialist and communist in nature...
– RCG, the Lebanese Revolutionnary Party – LRP, the Front of Patriotic Christians – PFC, the Democratic Lebanese Movement – DLM, the Movement of Arab Lebanon – MAL, the Arab Revolutionary Movement – ARM, the Partisans of the Revolution, the Vanguards of Popular Action – VPA, the Organization of Arab Youth – OAY, the Units of the Arab Call – UAC, the Movement of Arab Revolution – MAR, the Sixth of February Movement
Sixth of February Movement
The Sixth of February Movement or ‘6th FM’ was a small predominantly Sunni Nasserist faction active in Lebanon from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s...
, the 24 October Movement
24 October Movement
The 24 October Movement is a leftist progressist party known as the 24 October socialist progressist movement in Lebanon, founded in the year of 1969 by Farouk el-Moukaddem....
– 24 OM, the Lebanese Movement in Support of Fatah
Lebanese Movement in Support of Fatah
The Lebanese Movement in Support of Fatah – LMSF was established in 1968 by Dr. Usama Fakhuri, a second-rank Sunni politician opposed to leading Beirut Sunni zaim Saeb Salam...
– LMSF, the Assyrian Assault Battalion – AAB, the Knights of Ali
Knights of Ali
The ‘Knights of Ali’ was an obscure Shia faction that used to operate in West Beirut and a member of the Lebanese National Movement in the mid-1970s...
, the Black Panthers, etc. Most of them were marginal political organizations of revolutionary
Revolutionary
A revolutionary is a person who either actively participates in, or advocates revolution. Also, when used as an adjective, the term revolutionary refers to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavor.-Definition:...
or populist
Populism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
trend (Arab nationalist, Libertarian-Anarchist, Liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
-Idealist, radical Socialist, Marxist-Leninist, Trotskyist, or Maoist) that emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and despite their rather limited base of support, they were quite active. Anti-status quo, Pan-Arabist, and pro-Palestinian
Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
in policy, they strived for a social revolution that would transform Lebanese society, therefore sharing the same objectives as the leading LNM secular parties
Secularism
Secularism is the principle of separation between government institutions and the persons mandated to represent the State from religious institutions and religious dignitaries...
– the recognition of Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
as an Arab country
Arab nationalism
Arab nationalism is a nationalist ideology celebrating the glories of Arab civilization, the language and literature of the Arabs, calling for rejuvenation and political union in the Arab world...
and unwavering support for the PLO.
However, apart this minority of committed idealists, the vast majority of the remainder ‘movements’ were actually façades or ‘shops’ (Arabic: dakakin) – slightly politicised neighbourhood militias operating under grandiose pseudo-revolutionary labels – set up by PLO factions (mainly Fatah
Fatah
Fataḥ is a major Palestinian political party and the largest faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization , a multi-party confederation. In Palestinian politics it is on the left-wing of the spectrum; it is mainly nationalist, although not predominantly socialist. Its official goals are found...
) in a misguided effort to widen its base of local support among the unemployed Lebanese urban youth.
In most cases, their small poorly-disciplined, ill-equipped militia establishments were ad-hoc formations made of lightly armed and largely untrained Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
or Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
youths that rarely surpassed the 100-300 fighters’ mark – about the size of an understrength company
Company
A company is a form of business organization. It is an association or collection of individual real persons and/or other companies, who each provide some form of capital. This group has a common purpose or focus and an aim of gaining profits. This collection, group or association of persons can be...
or battalion
Battalion
A battalion is a military unit of around 300–1,200 soldiers usually consisting of between two and seven companies and typically commanded by either a Lieutenant Colonel or a Colonel...
. Some groupings were lucky enough to possess a few jeeps or pick-up trucks
Pickup truck
A pickup truck is a light motor vehicle with an open-top rear cargo area .-Definition:...
fitted with HMGs and rocket launchers but others, for the most part, fought on foot as light infantry
Light infantry
Traditionally light infantry were soldiers whose job was to provide a skirmishing screen ahead of the main body of infantry, harassing and delaying the enemy advance. Light infantry was distinct from medium, heavy or line infantry. Heavy infantry were dedicated primarily to fighting in tight...
, with small-arms pilfered from the Government forces, acquired on the black market or obtained via the Palestinian factions. Those groups either unable or unwilling to raise their own militias played only a political role, keeping themselves out of the 1975-76 savage street battles and sectarian killings, with some of their militants preferring instead to join the medical relief agencies organized by the LNM. The decline of the LNM in the late 1970s, culminating in its collapse in the aftermath of the Israeli invasion of June 1982
1982 Lebanon War
The 1982 Lebanon War , , called Operation Peace for Galilee by Israel, and later known in Israel as the Lebanon War and First Lebanon War, began on 6 June 1982, when the Israel Defense Forces invaded southern Lebanon...
, sounded the death toll for many of the minor Lebanese leftist organizations. As the war progressed, many of these small factions – at least the more politically-oriented ones – were destroyed in the violent power struggles of the 1980s. For the most part forced to go underground, some evolved to Islamic fundamentalist groups, whilst the less politicized simply degenerated into criminal street-gangs
Organized crime
Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...
that engaged in assassinations, theft, smuggling, and extortion. As a result, only a small fraction of the truly ideological-committed groupings did manage to survive the war to re-emerge in the 1990s as politically active organizations.
Military strengh and organization
At the beginning of the war in 1975 the different LNM militias were grouped into a military wing, designated the "Common Forces" (Arabic: القوات المشتركة, Al-Quwwat al-Mushtaraka), but best known as "Joint Forces" (LNM-JF), which numbered some 18,700 militiamen (not including allied Palestinian factions). Manpower was distributed as follows: the PSP militia and the LCP militia (the Popular GuardPopular Guard
The Popular Guard or PG , Garde Populaires in French were the military wing of the Lebanese Communist Party, from 1969...
) each had 5,000 men; the SSNP militia had 4,000 men; and the pro-Iraqi Baathists, the pro-Syria Baathists, and al-Mourabitoun
Al-Mourabitoun
The Independent Nasserite Movement or al-Murabitoun , also termed variously Mouvement des Nasséristes Indépendants ' in French, Independent Nasserite Organization , or Movement of Independent Nasserists, is a Nasserist political party in Lebanon.-Political...
militia 3,000 each. The others militias shared the remainder.
Eventually, this number was due to increase in the following months with the inclusion of 23,900 Palestinian guerrilla fighters from both the Rejectionist Front
Rejectionist Front
The Rejectionist Front or Front of the Palestinian Forces Rejecting Solutions of Surrender was a political coalition formed in 1974 by radical Palestinian factions who rejected the Ten Point Program adopted by the Palestine Liberation Organization in its 12th Palestinian National Congress ...
(RF) and mainstream PLO factions, later joined by 4,400 Lebanese regular soldiers from the Lebanese Arab Army (LAA) led by Lt. Ahmed al-Khatib who went over to the LNM-PLO side in January 1976. In the end the LNM-PLO-LAA combined military forces reached an impressive total of 46,900 left-wing troops by March that year, aligned against the 15,000-18,000 right-wing troops their Lebanese Front
Lebanese Front
The Lebanese Front or Front libanais in French, also known as the "Kufur Front", was a coalition of mainly Christian parties formed in 1976, during the Lebanese Civil War...
adversaries were able to muster.
Sponsor countries and organizations
The LNM-JF received financial aid and arms from many countries such as SyriaSyria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
, Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
, Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
and Southern Yemen, in addition to Palestinian support; besides lending their political backing and contributing with their organizational skills, experienced Palestinian cadres from RF and PLO groups provided weapons, equipment, and in many cases, military leadership to the Lebanese leftist militias. In addition, they also provided training, which was conducted at the refugee camps in the major cities or at PLO bases in southern Lebanon, mainly in the Beqaa Valley
Beqaa Valley
The Beqaa Valley is a fertile valley in east Lebanon. For the Romans, the Beqaa Valley was a major agricultural source, and today it remains Lebanon’s most important farming region...
(aka “Fatahland”).
Lebanese Civil War participation
As fighting escalated, the LNM allied itself with the umbrella Palestine Liberation OrganizationPalestine Liberation Organization
The Palestine Liberation Organization is a political and paramilitary organization which was created in 1964. It is recognized as the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people" by the United Nations and over 100 states with which it holds diplomatic relations, and has enjoyed...
(PLO), and by early 1976 the LNM controlled 80% of Lebanon's territory. But as its relations with Damascus
Damascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...
deteriorated, the pro-Syria Baath branch, the Amal Movement
Amal Movement
Amal Movement is short for the Lebanese Resistance Detachments the acronym for which, in Arabic, is "amal", meaning "hope."Amal was founded in 1975 as the militia wing of the Movement of the Disinherited, a Shi'a political movement founded by Musa...
, and an important SSNP faction left the movement or halted their participation.
In June 1976, the Syrian Army, fearing that a Palestinian victory would weaken its own strategic position, received a request from the Lebanese Front
Lebanese Front
The Lebanese Front or Front libanais in French, also known as the "Kufur Front", was a coalition of mainly Christian parties formed in 1976, during the Lebanese Civil War...
to intervene on their behalf. After strong initial resistance, the LNM/PLO forces began losing ground, and once the Arab countries eventually approved the Syrian intervention after the Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
and Riyadh
Riyadh
Riyadh is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of Riyadh Province, and belongs to the historical regions of Najd and Al-Yamama. It is situated in the center of the Arabian Peninsula on a large plateau, and is home to 5,254,560 people, and the urban center of a...
conferences, the common forces accepted a cease-fire. The Syrian forces then took on the role of a deterrent force, the "Arab Deterrent Forces" (ADF), between the belligerents. In 1977, Walid Jumblatt
Walid Jumblatt
Walid Jumblatt is a Lebanese politician and the current leader of the Progressive Socialist Party . He is the most prominent leader of Lebanon's Druze community.-Family:...
became the head of the LNM after the murder of his resigning father, Kamal, in an ambush widely accredited pro-Syria Palestinian militants working for Syrian intelligence. Despite this, Walid aligned himself with Syria, and maintained a good working relationship with Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad
Hafez al-Assad
Hafez ibn 'Ali ibn Sulayman al-Assad or more commonly Hafez al-Assad was the President of Syria for three decades. Assad's rule consolidated the power of the central government after decades of coups and counter-coups, such as Operation Wappen in 1957 conducted by the Eisenhower administration and...
(who had shared with his father a mutual distrust).
In 1978 the Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i Operation Litani
Operation Litani
The 1978 South Lebanon conflict was an invasion in Lebanon up to the Litani River carried out by the Israel Defense Forces in 1978. It was a military success for the Israeli Defense Forces, as PLO forces were pushed north of the river...
in southern Lebanon was partly directed against LNM militias, then fighting alongside the PLO after relations improved with Syria. In June 1982, the Movement was virtually dissolved after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, and replaced by The Lebanese National Resistance Front , which commenced resistance operations against the Israeli Army in September of that same year.
External links
- جبهة المقاومة الوطنية اللبنانية
- Thesis relating many political and military aspects of the Lebanese war, comprising the LNM positions (in French).