Zahliote Group

Zahliote Group – ZG مجموعة زحلوتي
Leaders	Aziz Wardeh
Dates of operation	1975–1978
Headquarters	Zahlé
Active regions	Zahlé, Beqaa Valley
Ideology	Lebanese nationalism Anti-communism
Political position	Right-wing
Size	500 fighters
Part of	Lebanese Front Lebanese Forces
Allies	Kataeb Regulatory Forces Tigers Militia Al-Tanzim Lebanese Armed Forces Internal Security Forces
Opponents	Lebanese National Movement (LNM) Lebanese Arab Army (LAA) Free Tigers Militia Zgharta Liberation Army (ZLA) Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Syrian Arab Armed Forces
Battles and wars	Lebanese Civil War
Preceded by 100 fighters

The Zahliote Group – ZG (Arabic: مجموعة زحلوتي | Majmueat Zhlouty) or 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.

Structure and organization

The ZG was led by Aziz Wardeh, 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' (Arabic: سبع عائلات | Sabe Eayilat) coalition headed by the za'im (political boss) Joseph Skaff. ^[1] Wardeh's Zahliotes were estimated at about 100-500 fighters equipped with small-arms purchased on 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, CJ-5 Jeeps, Toyota Land Cruiser (J40) and Land-Rover series II-III pickups, and Chevrolet C-10/C-15 Cheyenne light pickups) armed 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, The 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. ^[2] Allied with the other rightist Christian factions in the Lebanese Front, the 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 earlier that same day. ^[3]

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 ^{[4] [5] [6]} and again in March 1981, when it was besieged by the Syrian Army during the Battle of Zahleh. ^[7]

See also

• Lebanese Arab Army
• Lebanese Civil War
• Lebanese Forces (militia)
• Lebanese Forces – Executive Command
• Lebanese Front
• Lebanese National Movement
• List of weapons of the Lebanese Civil War
• Tigers Militia
• Zgharta Liberation Army

Notes

1. Traboulsi, Identités et solidarités croisées dans les conflits du Liban contemporain; Chapitre 12: L'économie politique des milices: le phénomène mafieux (2007), parte III.
2. Hokayem, L'armée libanaise pendant la guerre: un instrument du pouvoir du président de la République (1975-1985) (2012), p. 20.
3. Hokayem, L'armée libanaise pendant la guerre: un instrument du pouvoir du président de la République (1975-1985) (2012), p. 21.
4. Mclaurin, The battle of Zahle (1986), pp. 6-7.
5. Menargues, Les Secrets de la guerre du Liban (2004), p. 57.
6. Rabah, Conflict on Mount Lebanon: The Druze, the Maronites and Collective Memory (2020), p. 160.
7. 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, Éditions 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) –
• R.D. Mclaurin, The battle of Zahle, Aberdeen, MD: U.S. Army Human Engineering Laboratory, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Technical memorandum 8-86, 1986. –
• Makram Rabah, Conflict on Mount Lebanon: The Druze, the Maronites and Collective Memory, Alternative Histories, Edinburgh University Press, 2020 (1st edition). ISBN   978-1474474177
• 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
• Samir Kassir, La Guerre du Liban: De la dissension nationale au conflit régional, Éditions Karthala/CERMOC, Paris 1994. ISBN   978-2865374991 (in French)
• Tom Najem and Roy C. Amore, Historical Dictionary of Lebanon, Second Edition, Historical Dictionaries of Asia, Oceania, and the Middle East, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Lanham, Boulder, New York & London 2021. ISBN   9781538120439, 1538120437

Further reading

• Fawwaz Traboulsi, A History of Modern Lebanon: Second Edition, Pluto Press, London 2012. ISBN   978-0745332741
• Rex Brynen, Sanctuary and Survival: the PLO in Lebanon, Boulder: Westview Press, Oxford 1990. ISBN   0 86187 123 5 –
• Robert Fisk, Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War, London: Oxford University Press, (3rd ed. 2001). ISBN   0-19-280130-9 –
• Walid Khalidi, Conflict and Violence in Lebanon: Confrontation in the Middle East, Cambridge, MA: Center for International Affairs, Harvard University, 1983. ISBN   978-0876740378, 0876740379
• William W. Harris, Faces of Lebanon: Sects, Wars, and Global Extensions, Princeton Series on the Middle East, Markus Wiener Publishers, Princeton, New Jersey, 1997. ISBN   978-1558761155, 1-55876-115-2

External links

• Chamussy (René) – Chronique d’une guerre: Le Liban 1975-1977 – éd. Desclée – 1978 (in French)
• Histoire militaire de l'armée libanaise de 1975 à 1990 (in French)