The People's Liberation Army – PLA (

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

: جيش التحرير الشعبي , ''Jayish al-Tahrir al-Sha'aby'') or Armée de Libération Populaire (ALP) in French, also known as the Forces of the Martyr Kamal Jumblatt (

: قوات الشهيد كمال جنبلاط , ''Quwwat al-Shahid Kamal Junblat''), was the military wing of the

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

Druze The Druze (; ar, دَرْزِيٌّ, ' or ', , ') are an Arabic-speaking esoteric ethnoreligious group from Western Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, syncretic, and ethnic religion based on the teachings of ...

Progressive Socialist Party The Progressive Socialist Party ( ar, الحزب التقدمي الاشتراكي, translit=al-Hizb al-Taqadummi al-Ishtiraki) is a Lebanese political party. Its confessional base is in the Druze sect and its regional base is in Mount Lebanon ...

(PSP), which fought in the

Lebanese Civil War The Lebanese Civil War ( ar, الحرب الأهلية اللبنانية, translit=Al-Ḥarb al-Ahliyyah al-Libnāniyyah) was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 120,000 fatalities a ...

. The PSP and its militia were members of the

Lebanese National Movement The Lebanese National Movement (LNM) ( ar, الحركة الوطنية اللبنانية, ''Al-Harakat al-Wataniyya al-Lubnaniyya'') or Mouvement National Libanais (MNL) in French, was a front of leftist, pan-Arabist and Syrian nationalist par ...

(LNM) from 1975 to 1982.

Emblem

First adopted in 1976 and modified in 1977-78, the PLA official emblem consisted of a red flag with a white disc on the centre, featuring a crossed

dip pen A dip pen or nib pen or pen nib usually consists of a metal nib with capillary channels like those of fountain pen nibs, mounted in a handle or holder, often made of wood. Other materials can be used for the holder, including bone, metal and pla ...

and

pickaxe A pickaxe, pick-axe, or pick is a generally T-shaped hand tool used for Leverage (mechanics), prying. Its head is typically metal, attached perpendicularly to a longer handle, traditionally made of wood, occasionally metal, and increasingly ...

superimposed on an

AK-47 The AK-47, officially known as the ''Avtomat Kalashnikova'' (; also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is a gas operated, gas-operated assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian s ...

assault rifle in the middle standing upwards, all in silver, inserted on a golden circular wreath, the latter consisting of two interlocking branches and leaves of the

Oak tree An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably '' ...

and the Lebanese Cedar tree.Abi-Chahine, ''The People's Liberation Army Through the Eyes of a Lens, 1975–1991'' (2019), p. 107. File:People's Liberation Army Flag.jpg, alt=People's Liberation Army Flag, People's Liberation Army Flag File:Armored Corp.jpg, alt=Armored Corps, Armored Corps File:Engineering and Support Regiment.jpg, alt=Engineering and Support Regiment, Engineering and Support Regiment File:Artillery Corp.jpg, alt=Artillery Corps, Artillery Corps File:People's Liberation Army 1976 Flag Version.jpg, alt=People's Liberation Army 1976 Flag Version Tanukh Brigade, People's Liberation Army 1976 Flag Version - Tanukh Brigade File:Popular Liberation Forces.jpg, alt=Popular Liberation Forces, Popular Liberation Forces File:Signal Corp.jpg, alt=Signal Corps, Signal Corps File:The Military School.jpg, alt=The Military School, Military School File:War of 1958 Veterans.jpg, alt=War of 1958 Veterans, War of 1958 Veterans' association

Origins

Although the PSP was officially a

secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...

political party, its military wing was not only well-organized, but also one of the largest

sectarian Sectarianism is a political or cultural conflict between two groups which are often related to the form of government which they live under. Prejudice, discrimination, or hatred can arise in these conflicts, depending on the political status quo ...

militias in Lebanon. It was first founded unofficially by the Party's president, the za'im (political boss)

Kamal Jumblatt Kamal Fouad Jumblatt ( ar, كمال فؤاد جنبلاط; 6 December 1917 – 16 March 1977) was a Lebanese politician who founded the Progressive Socialist Party. He led the National Movement during the civil war against the Lebanese Front. H ...

at the height of the 1958 Civil War with a strength of about 1,000–2,000 militiamen, which fought alongside the

Pan-Arab Pan-Arabism ( ar, الوحدة العربية or ) is an ideology that espouses the unification of the countries of North Africa and Western Asia from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea, which is referred to as the Arab world. It is closely c ...

/leftist anti-government forces against the

Lebanese Army ) , founded = 1 August 1945 , current_form = 1991 , disbanded = , branches = Lebanese Ground ForcesLebanese Air Force Lebanese Navy , headquarters = Yarze, Lebanon , flying_hours = , websit ...

, and the pro-government conservative Christian and Muslim militias in

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

and the

Chouf District Chouf (also spelled Shouf, Shuf or Chuf, in ''Jabal ash-Shouf''; french: La Montagne du Chouf) is a historic region of Lebanon, as well as an administrative district in the governorate (muhafazat) of Mount Lebanon. Geography Located south-east o ...

. Disbanded upon the conclusion of the war, the PSP was left without an official paramilitary branch until the early 1970s, when – despite Kamal Jumblatt's initial reluctance to engage in paramilitarism – the Party's leadership board decided to quietly raise a new militia force with the help of the

Palestine Liberation Organization The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ar, منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية, ') is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establ ...

or PLO (mainly from

Fatah Fatah ( ar, فتح '), formerly the Palestinian National Liberation Movement, is a Palestinian nationalist social democratic political party and the largest faction of the confederated multi-party Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and ...

PFLP The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine ( ar, الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين, translit=al-Jabhah al-Sha`biyyah li-Taḥrīr Filasṭīn, PFLP) is a secular Palestinian Marxist–Leninist and revolutionary so ...

and DPFLP) in response to the Christian rightist Parties' own clandestine military build-up. Initial progress was slow, however, since the PSP under Kamal Jumblatt had no regular militiamen, but relied mostly on its Druze irregulars, which could be mobilised when needed. Because of the secrecy surrounding the formation of its military wing, the PSP was only able to gather 175-185 militiamen, most of them drawn from an existing Boy Scout organization, and each recruit had to finance himself.Sex & Abi-Chahine, ''Modern Conflicts 2 – The Lebanese Civil War, From 1975 to 1991 and Beyond'' (2021), p. 26. The weapons that these fighters used, usually a left-over from the PLO or a regional country, were obsolete, somewhat basic and in short supply, as Jumblatt had neither the means nor the will to invest heavily in his new militia.Rabah, ''Conflict on Mount Lebanon: The Druze, the Maronites and Collective Memory'' (2020), p. 153. From 1971 to 1974, this initial intake of young recruits was trained by a Druze medical doctor and former officer in the

Mexican Special Forces In Mexico, both the army and navy have special forces groups or elite units. Army Special Forces The Army has a Special Forces Corps unified command consisting of three Special Forces Brigades, a High Command GAFE (Grupo Aeromóvil de Fuerzas Esp ...

, Colonel Ghazi Karami, who manned an advanced

Commando Royal Marines from 40 Commando on patrol in the Sangin">40_Commando.html" ;"title="Royal Marines from 40 Commando">Royal Marines from 40 Commando on patrol in the Sangin area of Afghanistan are pictured A commando is a combatant, or operativ ...

course at a PSP-run secret training camp set up near

Choueifat Choueifat ( ar, شويفات, also transliterated Shuwayfat) is one of the biggest and most important cities in southeast of Beirut in Lebanon. The town is a Druze enclave that lies on the eastern side of Beirut's airport. The local population of ...

in the

Aley District Aley ( ar, عاليه) is a district ('' qadaa'') in Mount Lebanon, Lebanon, to the south-east of the Lebanon's capital Beirut. The capital is Aley. Aley city was previously known as the "bride of the summers" during the 1960 and 1970s, when Al ...

.Abi-Chahine, ''The People's Liberation Army Through the Eyes of a Lens, 1975–1991'' (2019), p. 16. Eventually, the group of 185 highly trained fighters that graduated from the course in 1974 with excellent military skills and tactics went to provide the founding cadre for the PSP's first unconventional warfare unit, which was given the title Popular Commandos Forces – PCF (

: قوات الكوماندوز الشعبية , ''Quwwat al-Kumanduz al-Sha'abya''). Led by Ramez Assaf, they first saw action in Beirut during the

Battle of the Hotels The Battle of the Hotels ( ar, معركة الفنادق, ''Maʿrakah al-Fanādiq,'' French: Front des Hotels), was a subconflict within the 1975–77 phase of the Lebanese Civil War which occurred in the Minet-el-Hosn hotel district of downto ...

in 1975-76.Abi-Chahine, ''The People's Liberation Army Through the Eyes of a Lens, 1975–1991'' (2019), p. 13. Under Kamal Jumblatt's leadership, the PSP was a major element in the

(LNM) alliance, which supported the recognition of Lebanon's Arab identity and sympathised with the Palestinians. When the

broke out in April 1975, as a member of the LNM the PSP and its small PCF militia were active founders of the movement's military wing, the Joint Forces (LNM-JF). On 7 August 1976, following an open appeal by Kamal Jumblatt urging Lebanese Muslim youths to join the LNM-JF militias, the PSP's own military wing was re-organized and expanded to a force not exceeding 400 men, being officially established as the Popular Liberation Forces – PLF (

: قوات التحرير الشعبية , ''Quwwat al-Tahrir al-Sha'abya'').Rabah, ''Conflict on Mount Lebanon: The Druze, the Maronites and Collective Memory'' (2020), p. 154. In the process, the PLF absorbed the PCF which was integrated in the newly created structure as the Tanukh Brigade (

: لواء تنوخ , ''Liwa' Tanukh''). The name 'Tanukh' clearly indicated Kamal Jumblatt's wish to link his current political venture to that of the early Druze Tanoukhid settlers tasked with defending the Lebanese coast against foreign invasions during the

Crusades The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...

. In any case, this brigade was the basis for many of the fighting units that were formed in PSP-affiliated areas, especially those engaged in combat at this early stage. The PLF continued to expand and by early 1977, it mustered 2,500–3,000 lightly armed fighters drawn from the

and

Shia Muslim Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, most ...

communities of the Chouf, although other sources place its numbers as high as 5,000.Bicard, ''Prospects for Lebanon – The Demobilization of the Lebanese Militias'', p. 9. Nevertheless, it was not until the death of Kamal Jumblatt in 1977, that a process to build a real military structure was set in motion in collaboration with the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

and Syria. On a military level both the Soviets and the Syrians took the PSP under their wing and gradually transformed its PLF militia into a proper army, with modern training and unrestricted access to weaponry when needed. The transformation of the PSP militia into an organised fighting unit was entrusted to Raja Harb, a Druze

Lieutenant (later, Major), who supervised training programs and military equipment deliveries to PLF units in Lebanon. All these developments allowed Walid Joumblatt to finally declare on 1 June 1978 the founding of the People's Liberation Army – Forces of the Martyr Kamal Jumblatt (PLA – FMKL). The

Lebanese Druze Lebanese Druze ( ar, دروز لبنان, durūz lubnān) are Lebanese people who are Druze. The Druze faith is a monotheistic and Abrahamic religion, and an ethnoreligious esoteric group originating from the Near East who self identify as ...

, under the leadership of Walid Jumblatt (who combined the PSP's presidency with that of the LNM at the time), now had an army capable of confronting any serious challenge, especially the perceived threat that was looming with the rise of

Bashir Gemayel Bachir Pierre Gemayel ( ; 10 November 1947 – 14 September 1982) was a Lebanese militia commander who led the Lebanese Forces, the military wing of the Kataeb Party in the Lebanese Civil War and was elected President of Lebanon in 1982. ...

and his newly unified

Lebanese Forces The Lebanese Forces ( ar, القوات اللبنانية '')'' is a Lebanese Christian-based political party and former militia during the Lebanese Civil War. It currently holds 19 of the 128 seats in Lebanon's parliament and is therefore th ...

(LF) Christian militia backed by

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

Military structure and organization

In 1975–77 the PLA was a predominantly infantry force, loosely organized into company- or battalion-sized formations provided with light

weapons A weapon, arm or armament is any implement or device that can be used to deter, threaten, inflict physical damage, harm, or kill. Weapons are used to increase the efficacy and efficiency of activities such as hunting, crime, law enforcement, s ...

drawn from PLO stocks or pilfered from LAF and ISF

barracks Barracks are usually a group of long buildings built to house military personnel or laborers. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word "barraca" ("soldier's tent"), but today barracks are u ...

. After suffering casualties during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon of June 1982, the PLA was quietly re-organized late that year by

Walid Jumblatt Walid Kamal Jumblatt ( ar, وليد جنبلاط; born 7 August 1949) is a Lebanese Druze politician and former militia commander who has been leading the Progressive Socialist Party since 1977. While leading the Lebanese National Resistance Fr ...

, who turned it into a disciplined fighting force provided with Soviet-made armoured vehicles and artillery. Headquartered at the

town of

Baakline Baakleen or Baakline ( ar, بعقلين) is a major Druze town located in Mount Lebanon, Chouf District, 45 kilometers southeast of Beirut. Altitude 850 – 920 meters high, population is 30,000, area 14 square km, number of homes 2,870. Borderi ...

in the

Chouf Chouf (also spelled Shouf, Shuf or Chuf, in ''Jabal ash-Shouf''; french: La Montagne du Chouf) is a historic region of Lebanon, as well as an administrative district in the governorate (muhafazat) of Mount Lebanon. Geography Located south-east ...

, the PSP militia by 1983 aligned 16,000–17,000 troops, consisting of 5,000–6,000 uniformed regulars backed by 12,000 male and female reservists staffed by a qualified, professionally-trained Officer corps. The PLA absorbed many Druze soldiers which had served with the

Lebanese Arab Army The Lebanese Arab Army – LAA (Arabic: جيش لبنان العربي transliteration ''Jayish Lubnan al-Arabi''), also known as the Arab Army of Lebanon (AAL), Arab Lebanese Army or Armée du Liban Arabe (ALA) in French, was a predominantly ...

(LAA) upon its forceful disbandment in 1977-78, being subsequently enlarged in the wake of the

Mountain War The Mountain War ( ar, حرب الجبل , ''Harb al-Jabal''), also known as the War of the Mountain and Guerre de la Montagne in French, was a subconflict between the 1982–83 phase of the Lebanese Civil War and the 1984–89 phase of the ...

with the inclusion of a number of Druze officers, NCOs and enlisted men from the

's Fourth Brigade after its disintegration in February 1984. During that conflict, the PLA also received the active support of the 1,800 men-strong, primarily Druze Eleventh Brigade commanded by Colonel Amin Qadi, stationed at

Hammana Hammana ( ar, حمانا) is a town in Lebanon, about 26 km (16 miles) east of Beirut. At an altitude of 1200 m (about 4000 ft) above sea level, Hammana is in the Mount Lebanon Governorate in the district (or Caza) of Baabda. Hammana i ...

and

Beiteddine Beit ed-Dine ( ar, بيت الدين), also known as Btaddine ( ar, بتدين) is a small town and the administrative capital of the Chouf District in the Mount Lebanon Governorate in Lebanon. The town is located 45 kilometers southeast of B ...

. Although its membership and command structure was predominantly Druze, the PLA did included a number of

Sunnis Sunni Islam () is the largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word ''Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia ...

and

Shi'ites Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, most ...

in their ranks; most Druze recruits continued to come from the Mountain and, until the return of the

Syrian Army " (''Guardians of the Homeland'') , colors = * Service uniform: Khaki, Olive * Combat uniform: Green, Black, Khaki , anniversaries = August 1st , equipment = , equipment_label = , battles = 1948 Arab–Israeli War Six ...

in 1987, from the Sanayeh (Kantari District) and the seafront quarters of West Beirut. Under the command of Major Raja Harb, from 1978 until the end of the civil war in 1990, the PSP militia annually had about 150 men in the USSR, at the two main training facilities run by the Soviet Main Directorate of International Military Cooperation, the Higher Military Combined Command Engineering School of Air Defense and the Higher United Military School in the

Odessa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...

, and the Simferopol United Military School on the

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

. In the winter of 1978, the first group of 52 Druze officer cadets arrived in the USSR, to be exposed to various military courses ranging from the School of Infantry to the more advanced Command and Staff College. Following their return, these skilled fighters formed the cadres in the PSP training camps set up throughout the

, where they transferred the skills they had acquired to a large number of future combatants. On some of these camps, the Soviet-trained Druze instructors were assisted by several Syrian military advisors sent by

Hafez al-Assad Hafez al-Assad ', , (, 6 October 1930 – 10 June 2000) was a Syrian statesman and military officer who served as President of Syria from taking power in 1971 until his death in 2000. He was also Prime Minister of Syria from 1970 to 1 ...

to support his new ally Walid Jumblatt. Other Druze officer cadets received their instruction in a PSP-run Military School set up at the town of Debbiyeh, also in the

. In 1986-87,

agreed to lend 2,000 PSP/PLA troops to the Libyan dictator Colonel

Muammar Gaddafi Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, . Due to the lack of standardization of transcribing written and regionally pronounced Arabic, Gaddafi's name has been romanized in various ways. A 1986 column by ''The Straight Dope'' lists 32 spellin ...

to fight alongside the

Libyan Army The Libyan Army ( ar, الجيش الليبي) is the brand for a number of separate military forces in Libya, which are under the command of the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA). Since December 2015 the groups of t ...

in the Chadian–Libyan conflict, as part of a aid package deal that included much-needed financing for the PSP troops in

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

. In the end, only a small contingent of 120 Druze officers and enlisted men was actually sent to Libya, but they were never used in their intended role of fighting the Chadians; instead, the PLA contingent underwent a regimented training programme in basic infantry, armour, and artillery tactics, manned by Soviet and East German advisors. Upon the conclusion of their instruction cycle, they were provided by the Libyans with a considerable haul of Soviet-made heavy weapons, including tanks, tracked and wheeled APCs, MBRLs, and

SPAAG An anti-aircraft vehicle, also known as a self-propelled anti-aircraft gun (SPAAG) or self-propelled air defense system (SPAD), is a mobile vehicle with a dedicated anti-aircraft capability. Specific weapon systems used include machine guns, ...

s, before returning to

by ship to the PSP-controlled port of Jieh in the Iqlim al-Kharrub coastal enclave.

Field organization

PLA armored, "Commando", infantry, and artillery units were organized into independent formations deployed to a specific area of military operations or "Sector" (

: ''Qitay''), seven of which were formed upon the establishment of the Popular Liberation Forces (PLF) in August 1976, and doubled as Regional Commands. Each "Sector" was assigned a "Commando" company and an infantry company, both of which were raised locally and grouped together into a battalion- or regimental-sized combat task-force termed a "Brigade" (

: ''Liwa''), plus an attached

Military Police Military police (MP) are law enforcement agencies connected with, or part of, the military of a state. In wartime operations, the military police may support the main fighting force with force protection, convoy security, screening, rear recon ...

Brigade (actually, a Battalion). By February 1984, the PLA aligned eight such "Brigades" that fielded eight "Commando" companies and eight assorted infantry companies, and eight Military Police "Brigades", with their respective "Sectors" being organized as follows: *The Beirut Sector (

: قطاع بيروت , ''Qitay Bayrut'') – Beirut Brigade (

: لواء بيروت , ''Liwa' Bayrut'') *The Aley Sector (

: قطاع عاليه , ''Qitay Alyh'') – Aley Brigade (

: لواء عاليه , ''Liwa' Alyh'') *The Choueifat Sector (

: قطاع الشويفات , ''Qitay al-Shuwayfat'') – Choueifat Brigade (

: لواء الشويفات , ''Liwa' al-Shuwayfat'') *The North Sector (

: قطاع الشمال , ''Qitay al-Shamal'') – North Brigade (

: لواء الشمال , ''Liwa' al-Shamal'') *The South Sector (

: قطاع الجنوب , ''Qitay al-Janub'') – South Brigade (

: لواء الجنوب , ''Liwa' al-Janub'') *The Beqaa Sector (

: قطاع البقاع , ''Qitay al-Biqaa'') – Beqaa Brigade (

: لواء البقاع , ''Liwa' al-Biqaa'') *The Tripoli Sector (

: قطاع طرابلس , ''Qitay Tarabulus'') – Tripoli Brigade (

: لواء طرابلس , ''Liwa' Tarabulus'') *The Border Sector (

: قطاع الحدود , ''Qitay al-Hudud'') – Border Brigade (

: لواء حرس الحدود , ''Liwa' Haras al-Hudud'')

Branches of service

In 1983-84, Walid Jumblatt reestructed the PLA along conventional lines, comprising several branches of service and support units, organized into seven (subsequently augmented to nine) brigade-sized formations termed "Corps" (

: ''Silah''), whilst its branches and specialized technical services consisted of: *The Infantry Corps (

: سلاح المشاة , ''Silah al-Moushat'') – First formed in 1978 and re-organized in 1984. *The Armored Corps (

: سلاح مدرع , ''Silah al-Moudara'a'') – Established in 1984. *The Artillery Corps (

: سلاح المدفعية , ''Silah al-Madfa'aiya'') – Established in 1984. *The Anti-Aircraft Corps (

: سلاح مضاد للطائرات , ''Silah Moudadoun lil Tayirat'') – Established in 1984. *The Rocket Corps (

: سلاح الصواريخ , ''Silah al-Sawarikh'') – Established in 1984. *The Signal Corps (

: فيلق الإشارة , ''Faylaq al-Ichara'') – Established in 1984. *The Logistics Corps (

: سلاح اللوجستيات , ''Silah al-luwjustayat'') – Established in 1984. *The Engineering and Support Regiment (

: فوج الهندسة والدعم , ''Fawj al-Hindasat Waldem'') – Established in 1984. *The Security Police Corps (

: فيلق شرطة الأمن , ''Faylaq Shurtat al-Amn'') – The PLA regular provost corps, established in 1984, which served both as

and as a

Gendarmerie Wrong info! --> A gendarmerie () is a military force with law enforcement duties among the civilian population. The term ''gendarme'' () is derived from the medieval French expression ', which translates to " men-at-arms" (literally, ...

in Druze-controlled areas to maintain law and order.

Elite units

*The Tanukh Brigade – PLA "Commando" and

Special Operations Special operations (S.O.) are military activities conducted, according to NATO, by "specially designated, organized, selected, trained, and equipped forces using unconventional techniques and modes of employment". Special operations may include ...

unit specialized in

unconventional warfare Unconventional warfare (UW) is broadly defined as "military and quasi-military operations other than conventional warfare" and may use covert forces, subversion, or guerrilla warfare. This is typically done to avoid escalation into conventional ...

. *The Jal el Bahr "Commando" Company (

: شركة جل البحر كوماندوز , ''Sharikat Jal el-Bahr Kumanduz'') – Formed in 1978 and based at Jal el Bahr in the Ain el-Mreisseh seafront quarter of Dar el-Mreisseh district in

West Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

, this Soviet-trained "Commando" company included a Combat Swimmer and Maritime Special Operations detachment, specialized in seaborne infiltration and

reconnaissance In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, terrain, and other activities. Examples of reconnaissance include patrolling by troops (skirmisher ...

.Abi-Chahine, ''The People's Liberation Army Through the Eyes of a Lens, 1975–1991'' (2019), pp. 40-41. *The 1st Naval Regiment (

: أول فوج بحري , ''Awal Fawj Bahriin'') *The War of 1958 Veterans' association (

: حرب 1958 جمعية المحاربين القدامى , ''Harb 1958 Jameiat al-Muharibin al-Qudama'a'') – Also known as the Rebels of 58 (

: متمردو 58 , ''Mutamaridu 58''), this reserve unit comprised elderly Druze irregulars who had previously fought in the 1958 Civil War and were engaged in the Mountain War in 1983-84.Rabah, ''Conflict on Mount Lebanon: The Druze, the Maronites and Collective Memory'' (2020), p. 284. *The Forces of Abu-Ibrahim (

: قوات ابو ابراهيم , ''Quwwat Abu Ibrahim'') – Contingent of Druze fighting clerics (''Sheikhs'') that fought in the Mountain War. On 14 February 1984, in what was dubbed "Operation Sayyid Abdallah al-Tanukhi", the Druze Sheikhs participated alongside PLA regulars in the attack that seized all the LF and Lebanese Army positions in the Gharb area southeast of

Mount Lebanon Mount Lebanon ( ar, جَبَل لُبْنَان, ''jabal lubnān'', ; syr, ܛܘܪ ܠܒ݂ܢܢ, ', , ''ṭūr lewnōn'' french: Mont Liban) is a mountain range in Lebanon. It averages above in elevation, with its peak at . Geography The Mount Le ...

and liberated the Mausoleum of Sayyid Abdallah al-Tanukhi.

Military facilities

*PLA "Commando" School (

) – Established earlier in 1971, it was primarily tasked of training the PLA's "Commando" troops. *PLA Military School ( Debbiyeh,

) – Main training facility of the PLA, which housed its Military Academy to train Officer cadets, the

Non-commissioned officer A non-commissioned officer (NCO) is a military officer who has not pursued a commission. Non-commissioned officers usually earn their position of authority by promotion through the enlisted ranks. (Non-officers, which includes most or all enli ...

(NCO) School and the Military Police Academy. *Jal el Bahr Barracks (Dar el-Mreisseh district, West Beirut) – Established in 1978 and allocated in an unfinished apartment building at the Jal el Bahr seafront quarter, this was the main PLA depot in the Lebanese capital, and the headquarters of the Jal el Bahr "Commando" Company. *Saïd el-Khateeb Barracks (

Baabda District Baabda District ( ar, قضاء بعبدا, transliteration: ''Qada' Baabda''), sometimes spelled ''B'abda'', is a district (''qadaa'') of Mount Lebanon Governorate, Lebanon, to the south and east of the Lebanon's capital Beirut. The region is als ...

) – Headquarters of the Lebanese Army's Druze Eleventh Brigade. *Maasraiti vehicle park (

) – Central parking area where the PLA kept most of its armoured and transport vehicles. *PLA Engineering and repair depot (Tarchich,

) – Run by the Engineering and Support Regiment, it housed the PLA's main repair and maintenance wokshops.

List of PLA Commanders

(1975–1977) *

(1977–1990)

PLA Junior Commanders

*Colonel Ghazi Karami *Lieutenant Colonel Sharif FayadAbi-Chahine, ''The People's Liberation Army Through the Eyes of a Lens, 1975–1991'' (2019), p. 109. *Major Raja Harb *Major Anwar al-Fatayri – PLA's Commissioner for Mobilisation. * Riyad Taqi al-Din * Ramez Assaf – Commander of the PLA Tanukh "Commando" Brigade.Sex & Abi-Chahine, ''Modern Conflicts 2 – The Lebanese Civil War, From 1975 to 1991 and Beyond'' (2021), pp. 6; 26. * Saleh al-Deek – Deputy Commander of the Popular Liberation Forces in the Aley Sector. * Hatem Bou Kheir – Commander of the PLA Jal el Bahr "Commando" Company in West Beirut. * Ghanem Tarabay – Commander of the PLA forces in the Maten region. * Fadi al-Ghraizi – Commander of the PLA forces in the Jurd region. * Toufic BarakatHokayem, ''L'armée libanaise pendant la guerre: un instrument du pouvoir du président de la République (1975-1985)'' (2012), p. 102, note 170. * Alaaeddine Terro * Issam Aintrazi (a.k.a. 'Abu Said') – Commander of the Beirut Sector. * Haitham al-Jurdy (a.k.a. 'Abu al-Shahid') – Commander of the Choueifat Sector. *

Jamal Saab Jamal ( ar, جمال ''/'') is an Arabic masculine given name, meaning "beauty",Jamal
at BehindTheName.com and a surna ...

* Hussein Kerbaj * Raja Fakhreddin * Ramzi Al-Rayess – Commander of the Aley Sector.Sex & Abi-Chahine, ''Modern Conflicts 2 – The Lebanese Civil War, From 1975 to 1991 and Beyond'' (2021), p. 8. * Kamil Mahmoud – Head of the security apparatus of PSP President Walid Jumblatt. * Nadim Bou Harfouch * Hassan al-Beaini – Commander of the PLA Security Police Corps. * Mohamad Awad – Commander of the Arab al-Maslakh company of the PLA Security Police Corps.Sex & Abi-Chahine, ''Modern Conflicts 2 – The Lebanese Civil War, From 1975 to 1991 and Beyond'' (2021), p. 88. * Hussein al-Khatib Bibi – Deputy Commander of the Arab al-Maslakh company of the PLA Security Police Corps. * Jamal Ammar (a.k.a. 'Abu Ammar') – subordinate unit Commander of the PLA Security Police Corps. * Zouhair Bou Chahine

Weapons and equipment

Besides

Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

and Syrian backing, the collapse of the

Lebanese Armed Forces ) , founded = 1 August 1945 , current_form = 1991 , disbanded = , branches = Lebanese Ground ForcesLebanese Air Force Lebanese Navy , headquarters = Yarze, Lebanon , flying_hours = , websit ...

(LAF) and

Internal Security Forces The Internal Security Forces Directorate ( ar, المديرية العامة لقوى الأمن الداخلي, al-Mudiriyya al-'aamma li-Qiwa al-Amn al-Dakhili; french: Forces de Sécurité Intérieure; abbreviated ISF) is the national police ...

(ISF) in January 1976 allowed the PSP/PLA to seize some weapons and vehicles from their barracks and police stations,Abi-Chahine, ''The People's Liberation Army Through the Eyes of a Lens, 1975–1991'' (2019), p. 117. though they received further military assistance from

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

, and the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

. Additional weaponry, vehicles and other, non-lethal military equipments were procured in the international

black market A black market, underground economy, or shadow economy is a clandestine market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality or is characterized by noncompliance with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the se ...

Small-arms

PLA infantry units were provided with a variety of small arms, comprising

Mauser Mauser, originally Königlich Württembergische Gewehrfabrik ("Royal Württemberg Rifle Factory"), was a German arms manufacturer. Their line of bolt-action rifles and semi-automatic pistols has been produced since the 1870s for the German arme ...

Gewehr 98 The Gewehr 98 (abbreviated G98, Gew 98, or M98) is a German bolt-action rifle made by Mauser, firing cartridges from a five-round internal clip-loaded magazine. It was the German service rifle from 1898 to 1935, when it was replaced by the Ka ...

and

Karabiner 98k The Karabiner 98 kurz (; "carbine 98 short"), often abbreviated Karabiner 98k, Kar98k or K98k and also sometimes incorrectly referred to as a K98 (a K98 is a Polish carbine and copy of the Kar98a), is a bolt-action rifle chambered for the 7.92×5 ...

, Lee-Enfield,

Pattern 1914 Enfield The Rifle, .303 Pattern 1914 (or P14) was a British service rifle of the First World War period. A bolt action weapon with an integral 5-round magazine, it was principally contract manufactured by companies in the United States. It served as a ...

, Berthier 1907/15 – M16 Lebel and MAS-36

bolt-action Bolt-action is a type of manual firearm action that is operated by ''directly'' manipulating the bolt via a bolt handle, which is most commonly placed on the right-hand side of the weapon (as most users are right-handed). Most bolt-action ...

rifles,

MAS-49 The MAS-49 is a French semi-automatic rifle that replaced various bolt-action rifles as the French service rifle that was produced from 1949. It was designed and manufactured by the government-owned MAS arms factory.Huon, Jean; ''Proud Promise— ...

M1 Garand The M1 Garand or M1 rifleOfficially designated as U.S. rifle, caliber .30, M1, later simply called Rifle, Caliber .30, M1, also called US Rifle, Cal. .30, M1 is a semi-automatic rifle that was the service rifle of the U.S Army during World War ...

(or its Italian-produced copy, the Beretta Model 1952) and SKS

semi-automatic rifle A semi-automatic rifle is an autoloading rifle that fires a single cartridge with each pull of the trigger, and uses part of the fired cartridge's energy to eject the case and load another cartridge into the chamber. For comparison, a bolt-act ...

AMD-65 AMD-65 ( Hungarian: ''Automata Módosított Deszant egyver1965''; Automatic Modified Paratrooper eapon is a Hungarian-manufactured licensed variant of the venerable selective fire AKM rifle for use by that nation's armored infantry and paratr ...

assault carbines,

Heckler & Koch G3 The Heckler & Koch G3 (''Gewehr'' 3) is a 7.62×51mm NATO, select-fire battle rifle developed in the 1950s by the German armament manufacturer Heckler & Koch (H&K) in collaboration with the Spanish state-owned design and development agency CET ...

FN FAL The FAL (a French acronym for (English: "Light Automatic Rifle")), is a battle rifle designed in Belgium by Dieudonné Saive and manufactured by FN Herstal (simply known as FN). During the Cold War the FAL was adopted by many countries of th ...

M16A1 The M16 rifle (officially designated Rifle, Caliber 5.56 mm, M16) is a family of military rifles adapted from the ArmaLite AR-15 rifle for the United States military. The original M16 rifle was a 5.56×45mm automatic rifle with a 20-roun ...

and

AKM The AKM () is an assault rifle designed by Soviet small arms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov in 1959. It is the most ubiquitous rifle of the Kalashnikov rifles. It was developed as a replacement to the AK-47 introduced a decade prior. Introduc ...

assault rifles (other variants included the

Zastava M70 The Zastava M70 ( sr-Cyrl, Застава М70) is a 7.62x39mm assault rifle. Developed in Yugoslavia by Zastava Arms during the 1960s, the M70 was an unlicensed derivative of the Soviet AK-47 (specifically the Type 3 variant). It became the st ...

,Abi-Chahine, ''The People's Liberation Army Through the Eyes of a Lens, 1975–1991'' (2019), p. 19. Chinese

Type 56 The Type 56 (; literally; "Assault Rifle, Model of 1956") is a Chinese 7.62×39mm rifle. It is a variant of the Soviet-designed AK-47 (specifically Type 3) and AKM rifles.Miller, David (2001). ''The Illustrated Directory of 20th Century Guns''. ...

,Abi-Chahine, ''The People's Liberation Army Through the Eyes of a Lens, 1975–1991'' (2019), p. 23. Romanian

Pistol Mitralieră model 1963/1965 The Pistol Mitralieră model 1963/1965 (abbreviated PM md. 63 or simply md. 63) is a Romanian 7.62x39mm assault rifle. Developed in the late 1950s, the PM md. 63 was a derivative of the Soviet AKM produced under license. It was the standard iss ...

,Katz and Volstad, ''Arab Armies of the Middle East Wars 2'' (1988), p. 46, Plate G5. Bulgarian AKK/AKKS and former East German MPi-KMS-72 assault rifles). Submachine guns and shotguns, such as the

PPSh-41 The PPSh-41 () is a Soviet submachine gun designed by Georgy Shpagin as a cheaper and simplified alternative to the PPD-40. A common Russian nickname for the weapon is "''papasha''" (), meaning "daddy", and it was sometimes called the "burp gun" ...

, Beretta Model 12, Steyr MPi 69 and

Remington Model 870 The Remington Model 870 is a pump-action shotgun manufactured by Remington Arms Company, LLC. It is widely used by the public for shooting sports, hunting and self-defense, as well as by law enforcement and military organizations worldwide. Dev ...

were employed by PLA bodyguard units. Several models of handguns were used, such as

Colt Cobra The Colt Cobra is a lightweight, aluminum-framed, double-action short-barrelled revolver, not to be confused with the Colt King Cobra. The Cobra was chambered in .38 Special, .38 Colt New Police, .32 Colt New Police, and .22 LR. It holds six ...

.38 Special snub-nose revolvers,

Tokarev TT-33 The TT-30,, "7.62 mm Tokarev self-loading pistol model 1930", TT stands for Tula-Tokarev) commonly known simply as the Tokarev, is an out-of-production Soviet semi-automatic pistol. It was developed in 1930 by Fedor Tokarev as a service pisto ...

CZ 75 The CZ 75 is a semi-automatic pistol made by Czech firearm manufacturer ČZUB. First introduced in 1975, it is one of the original " wonder nines" and features a staggered-column magazine, all-steel construction, and a hammer forged barrel. It ...

, FN P35 and

MAB PA-15 pistol The MAB PA-15 (''Pistolet Automatique 15'', also known as the ''P-15'' or ''P.15 Standard'') was a French semi-automatic pistol, designed by the Manufacture d'armes de Bayonne. The model number, 15, refers to the magazine capacity. The PA-15 was ...

s. Squad weapons consisted of Bren Mk. I .303 (7.7mm),

MG 34 The MG 34 (shortened from German: ''Maschinengewehr 34'', or "machine gun 34") is a German recoil-operated air-cooled general-purpose machine gun, first tested in 1929, introduced in 1934, and issued to units in 1936. It introduced an entirely ne ...

RPK The RPK (russian: Ручной пулемёт Калашникова/РПК, Ruchnoy Pulemyot Kalashnikova, link=no, English: "Kalashnikov hand-held machine gun"), sometimes retroactively termed the RPK-47, is a Soviet 7.62×39mm light machine ...

RPD RPD may refer to: People * Robert Prentiss Daniel, American psychologist * Rahul Peter Das, German professor * Rajendra Prasad Das, Indian archaeologist * Royal Page Davidson, American scholar * Richard Paul Davies, English priest * Richard Pe ...

, PK/PKM,

FN MAG The FN MAG is a Belgian 7.62 mm general-purpose machine gun, designed in the early 1950s at Fabrique Nationale (FN) by Ernest Vervier. It has been used by more than 80 countries and it has been made under licence in several countries, inc ...

and M60 light machine guns, with heavier Browning M1919A4 .30 Cal, Browning M2HB .50 Cal, SG-43/SGM Goryunov and

DShKM The DShK 1938 ( Cyrillic: ДШК, for russian: Дегтярёва-Шпагина Крупнокалиберный, Degtyaryova-Shpagina Krupnokaliberny, links=no, "Degtyaryov-Shpagin large-calibre") is a Soviet heavy machine gun with a V-shaped bu ...

machine guns being employed as platoon and company weapons. Soviet Dragunov SVD-63 sniper rifles and SIG SG 542 assault rifles equipped with telescopic sights were used for sniping. Grenade launchers and portable anti-tank weapons included

M203 The M203 is a single-shot 40 mm under-barrel grenade launcher designed to attach to a rifle. It uses the same rounds as the older stand-alone M79 break-action grenade launcher, which utilizes the high-low propulsion system to keep recoil forces ...

, M79,

M72 LAW The M72 LAW (light anti-tank weapon, also referred to as the light anti-armor weapon or LAW as well as LAWS: light anti-armor weapons system) is a portable one-shot unguided anti-tank weapon. The solid rocket propulsion unit was developed in th ...

and

RPG-7 The RPG-7 (russian: link=no, РПГ-7, Ручной Противотанковый Гранатомёт, Ruchnoy Protivotankoviy Granatomyot) is a portable, reusable, unguided, shoulder-launched, anti-tank, rocket-propelled grenade launcher. ...

rocket launchers A rocket launcher is a weapon that launches an unguided, rocket-propelled projectile. History The earliest rocket launchers documented in imperial China consisted of arrows modified by the attachment of a rocket motor to the shaft a few in ...

whilst crew-served and indirect fire weapons comprised M1938 107mm,Abi-Chahine, ''The People's Liberation Army Through the Eyes of a Lens, 1975–1991'' (2019), p. 77. 120-PM-38 (M-1938) 120mm, MT-13 (M1943) 160mm and 240mm M-240 heavy mortars, plus DKB Grad-P 122mm Light portable rocket systems,

SPG-9 The SPG-9 Kopyo (''Spear'') ( Russian: СПГ-9 Копьё) is a tripod-mounted man-portable, 73 millimetre calibre recoilless gun developed by the Soviet Union. It fires fin-stabilised, rocket-assisted HE and HEAT projectiles similar to those fi ...

73 mm,El-Assad, ''Civil Wars Volume 1: The Gun Trucks'' (2008), p. 135. B-10 82mm, B-11 107mm and M40A1 106mm

recoilless rifle A recoilless rifle, recoilless launcher or recoilless gun, sometimes abbreviated "RR" or "RCL" (for ReCoilLess) is a type of lightweight artillery system or man-portable launcher that is designed to eject some form of countermass such as propel ...

s (often mounted on

technicals Technicals may refer to: * Technical (vehicle), an improvised fighting vehicle often used in civil conflict * TECHNICALS, a clothing brand owned by Blacks Leisure Group See also * Technical (disambiguation) * Cambridge Technicals Cambridge Tech ...

Armoured and transport vehicles

The PSP militia fielded by 1977 a small mechanized corps made of

Panhard AML-90 The Panhard AML (''Auto Mitrailleuse Légère'', or "Light Machine Gun Car") is an armoured car with reconnaissance capability. Designed on a lightly armoured 4×4 chassis, it weighs an estimated 5.5 tonnes, and is thus suitable for airborne depl ...

Kassis, ''30 Years of Military Vehicles in Lebanon'' (2003), p. 57. and Staghound armoured cars,

AMX-13 The AMX-13 is a French light tank produced from 1952 to 1987. It served with the French Army, as the Char 13t-75 Modèle 51, and was exported to more than 26 other nations. Named after its initial weight of 13 tonnes, and featuring a tough and r ...

and M41A3 Walker Bulldog light tanks,Abi-Chahine, ''The People's Liberation Army Through the Eyes of a Lens, 1975–1991'' (2019), p. 122.

M42 Duster The M42 40 mm Self-Propelled Anti-Aircraft Gun, or "Duster," is an American armored light air-defense gun built for the United States Army from 1952 until December 1960, in service until 1988. Production of this vehicle was performed by the ...

SPAAGs, Panhard M3 VTT and M113 armored personnel carriers seized from the Lebanese Army in February 1976, plus a fleet of

gun truck A gun truck is an armored vehicle with one or more crew-served weapons, typically based on a commercial vehicle. Gun trucks often have improvised vehicle armor, such as scrap metal, concrete, gravel, or sandbags, which is added to a heavy truc ...

s and

. The latter consisted of US

Willys M38A1 The Willys MD, formally the M38A1 Truck, Utility: 1/4 ton, 4x4, or the G758 by its U.S. Army Standard Nomenclature supply catalog designation, was a four-wheel drive, military light utility vehicle, made by Willys and Willys Motors / Kaiser Jee ...

MD jeeps, Land-Rover series II-III,

Toyota Land Cruiser (J40) The Toyota Land Cruiser (J40), is a series of Land Cruisers made by Toyota from 1960 until 2001. Traditional body on frame, most 40 series Land Cruisers were built as 2-door models with slightly larger dimensions than the similar Jeep CJ. Th ...

, Toyota Land Cruiser (J43), Chevrolet C-10/C-15 Cheyenne light pickup trucks,Abi-Chahine, ''The People's Liberation Army Through the Eyes of a Lens, 1975–1991'' (2019), p. 31. Chevrolet C/K 3rd generation and Jeep Gladiator J20 light pickup trucks, GMC K1500 and GMC C4500 medium-duty trucks, and M35A1 2½-ton (6x6) military trucks, equipped with

heavy machine guns A heavy machine gun (HMG) is significantly larger than light, medium or general-purpose machine guns. HMGs are typically too heavy to be man-portable (carried by one person) and require mounting onto a weapons platform to be operably stable or t ...

recoilless rifles A recoilless rifle, recoilless launcher or recoilless gun, sometimes abbreviated "RR" or "RCL" (for ReCoilLess) is a type of lightweight artillery system or man-portable launcher that is designed to eject some form of countermass such as propel ...

, and

Anti-aircraft Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

autocannons An autocannon, automatic cannon or machine cannon is a fully automatic gun that is capable of rapid-firing large-caliber ( or more) armour-piercing, explosive or incendiary shells, as opposed to the smaller-caliber kinetic projectiles (bull ...

. These vehicles were partially supplanted in the early 1980s by new models, such as Soviet

UAZ-469 The UAZ-469 is an off-road military light utility vehicle manufactured by UAZ. It was used by Soviet and other Warsaw Pact armed forces, as well as paramilitary units in Eastern Bloc countries. In the Soviet Union, it also saw widespread service ...

light utility vehicles,

Jeep CJ-5 The Jeep CJ models are a series and a range of small, open-bodied off-road vehicles and compact pickup trucks, built and sold by several successive incarnations of the Jeep automobile marque from 1945 to 1986. The 1945 Willys Jeep was the world' ...

and Jeep CJ-8 (civilian versions of the Willys M38A1 MD jeep), Toyota Land Cruiser (J45), Toyota Land Cruiser (FJ70) 1984, Nissan Patrol 160-Series (3rd generation), Nissan 620 and Datsun 720 pickup trucks, whilst the disintegration of the Fourth Brigade allowed the PLA to seize a number of US M151A2 jeeps, M880/M890 Series CUCV, Chevrolet C-20 ScottsdaleNeville, ''Technicals: Non-Standard Tactical Vehicles from the Great Toyota War to modern Special Forces'' (2018), p. 15. and Dodge Ram (1st generation) pickup trucks, and M35A2 2½-ton cargo trucks, which they turned into

by arming them with Heavy machine guns, recoilless rifles and AA autocannons. They also captured four

Alvis Saladin The FV601 Saladin is a six-wheeled armoured car developed by Crossley Motors and later manufactured by Alvis. Designed in 1954, it replaced the AEC Armoured Car in service with the British Army from 1958 onward. The vehicle weighed 11 tonnes, o ...

armoured cars Armored (or armoured) car or vehicle may refer to: Wheeled armored vehicles * Armoured fighting vehicle, any armed combat vehicle protected by armor ** Armored car (military), a military wheeled armored vehicle * Armored car (valuables), an arm ...

, seven US-made

M48A5 The M48 Patton is an American first-generation main battle tank (MBT) introduced in February 1952, being designated as the 90mm Gun Tank: M48. It was designed as a replacement for the M26 Pershing, M4 Sherman, M46 and M47 Patton tanks, and wa ...

main battle tank A main battle tank (MBT), also known as a battle tank or universal tank, is a tank that fills the role of armor-protected direct fire and maneuver in many modern armies. Cold War-era development of more powerful engines, better suspension sys ...

s (MBTs),Kassis, ''30 Years of Military Vehicles in Lebanon'' (2003), p. 59.

light tanks, and forty-three M113 APCs for their own armoured corps. The PLA's armoured units were further strengthened between 1983 and 1987 with the arrival of some 74

T-55A The T-54 and T-55 tanks are a series of Soviet main battle tanks introduced in the years following the Second World War. The first T-54 prototype was completed at Nizhny Tagil by the end of 1945.Steven Zaloga, T-54 and T-55 Main Battle Tanks ...

MBTs, BTR-152V1,Kassis, ''30 Years of Military Vehicles in Lebanon'' (2003), p. 58.

BTR-60PB The BTR-60 is the first vehicle in a series of Soviet eight-wheeled armoured personnel carriers (APCs). It was developed in the late 1950s as a replacement for the BTR-152 and was seen in public for the first time in 1961. BTR stands for ''Brone ...

, and

BMP-1 The BMP-1 is a Soviet amphibious tracked infantry fighting vehicle, in service 1966–present. BMP stands for ''Boyevaya Mashina Pyekhoty 1'' (russian: link=no, Боевая Машина Пехоты 1; БМП-1), meaning "infantry fighting ...

Abi-Chahine, ''The People's Liberation Army Through the Eyes of a Lens, 1975–1991'' (2019), p. 61. APCs and two ZSU-23-4M1 Shilka SPAAGs supplied on loan by the DPFLP,

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

, and the

; a few M3/M9 Zahlam half-tracks were captured from the

in 1983. For logistical support, the PLA relied on Toyota Land Cruiser (J42)

hardtop A hardtop is a rigid form of automobile roof, which for modern cars is typically constructed from metal. A hardtop roof can be either fixed (i.e. not removable), Convertible#Detachable hardtop, detachable for separate storing or retractable ha ...

, Toyota Land Cruiser (J45)

and Nissan Patrol 160-Series (3rd generation) hardtop light pickups, Syrian-supplied

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquartere ...

Unimog 416 The Unimog (, ) is a range of multi-purpose tractors, trucks and lorries that has been produced by Boehringer from 1948 until 1951, and by Daimler Truck (formerly Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler and Daimler AG) since 1951. In the United States and ...

and

GAZ-66 The GAZ-66 is a Soviet and later Russian 4x4 all-road (off-road) military truck produced by GAZ. It was one of the main cargo vehicles for motorized infantry of the Soviet Army and is still employed in former Soviet Union countries. It is nickna ...

light trucks, GMC C4500 medium-duty trucks, Soviet

ZIL-131 The ZIL-131 is a general purpose 3.5 tonne 6x6 army truck designed in the Soviet Union by Zavod Imeni Likhacheva, ZIL. The basic model being a general cargo truck. Variants include a tractor-trailer truck, a dump truck, a fuel truck, and a 6x6 fo ...

(6x6) military trucks, Ural-4320 AWD (6x6) general purpose trucks, captured Israeli

AIL M325 Command Car The AIL M325 Command Car is a 4x4 military truck produced by the Automotive Industries Limited (AIL) of Nazareth in Israel from 1970 to 1993 for use by the Israel Defense Forces. The M325 is a light, versatile truck designed for carrying up to ...

s ('Nun-Nun') and US M35A2 2½-ton (6x6) military trucks. A number of Soviet BTS-4 and VT-55KS Armoured Recovery Vehicles (ARV) and MAZ-537G tank transporters were also employed.Sex & Abi-Chahine, ''Modern Conflicts 2 – The Lebanese Civil War, From 1975 to 1991 and Beyond'' (2021), pp. 20-21; 52. Volkswagen (Type 2) T3 Transporter vans were used as military ambulances.

Artillery

The PLA also fielded a powerful artillery corps equipped with obsolete Soviet ZiS-2 57mm anti-tank guns,Kassis, ''30 Years of Military Vehicles in Lebanon'' (2003), p. 61.Abi-Chahine, ''The People's Liberation Army Through the Eyes of a Lens, 1975–1991'' (2019), pp. 77; 81. M1944 (BS-3) 100mm anti-tank and field guns, M101A1 105mm towed field howitzers, Mle 1950 BF-50 155mm howitzers, 122 mm howitzer 2A18 (D-30),

130 mm towed field gun M1954 (M-46) The 130 mm towed field gun M-46 (russian: 130-мм пушка M-46) is a manually loaded, towed 130 mm artillery piece, manufactured in the Soviet Union in the 1950s. It was first observed by the west in 1954. For many years, the M-46 ...

, Chinese Type 59-1 130mm field guns and M1955 (D-20) 152mm towed gun-howitzers, whilst the rocket corps fielded truck-mounted BM-11 122mm and BM-21 Grad 122mm and towed

BM-12 The Type 63 multiple rocket launcher is a towed, 12-tube, 107mm rocket launcher produced by the People's Republic of China in the early 1960s and later exported and manufactured globally. Although no longer serving with active infantry units, the ...

(Chinese Type 63 107mm) MBRLs. A small number of DEFA D921/GT-2 90mm anti-tank guns mounted on M3/M9 Zahlam half-tracks were captured from the

in 1983-84. Yugoslav Zastava M55 A2 20mm, Soviet

ZPU The ZPU (, meaning "anti-aircraft machine gun mount") is a family of towed anti-aircraft gun based on the Soviet 14.5×114mm KPV heavy machine gun. It entered service with the Soviet Union in 1949 and is used by over 50 countries worldwide. ...

(ZPU-1, ZPU-2, ZPU-4) 14.5mm and ZU-23-2 23mm Anti-aircraft

autocannon An autocannon, automatic cannon or machine cannon is a fully automatic gun that is capable of rapid-firing large-caliber ( or more) armour-piercing, explosive or incendiary shells, as opposed to the smaller-caliber kinetic projectiles (bull ...

s (mostly mounted on

and BTR-152 and M113 APCs), and towed M1939 (61-K) 37mm and AZP S-60 57mm anti-aircraft guns were employed in both

air defense Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

and direct fire supporting roles. In addition to AA guns and autocannons, the PLA received from Syria a number of man-portable, shoulder-launched Soviet

SA-7 Grail The 9K32 Strela-2 (russian: Cтрела, "arrow"; NATO reporting name SA-7 Grail) is a light-weight, shoulder-fired, surface-to-air missile (or MANPADS) system. It is designed to target aircraft at low altitudes with passive infrared homing guid ...

surface-to-air (SAM) missiles which were used to bring down two

Lebanese Air Force The Lebanese Air Force (LAF) ( ar, القوات الجوية اللبنانية, Al Quwwat al-Jawwiya al-Lubnaniyya) is the aerial warfare branch of the Lebanese Armed Forces. The seal of the air force is a Roundel with two wings and a Lebanese C ...

Hawker Hunter The Hawker Hunter is a transonic British jet-powered fighter aircraft that was developed by Hawker Aircraft for the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It was designed to take advantage of the newly developed Rolls-R ...

fighter jets Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield ...

and one

Israeli Air Force The Israeli Air Force (IAF; he, זְרוֹעַ הָאֲוִיר וְהֶחָלָל, Zroa HaAvir VeHahalal, tl, "Air and Space Arm", commonly known as , ''Kheil HaAvir'', "Air Corps") operates as the aerial warfare branch of the Israel Defense ...

(IAF) Kfir fighter-bomber jet during the 1983–84

(the pilot was rescued by the Lebanese Army).Guest, ''Lebanon'' (1994), p. 106. This source reports the loss as an American-made F-16, though it was actually an Israeli-made Kfir.

Sea craft

The Combat Swimmer and Maritime Special Operations detachment of the

-based Jal el Bahr "Commando" Company operated a small number of rubber inflatable dinghies that were used for seaborne infiltration operations.

Aircraft

In 1988, the PLA gained his greatest trophy when a

pilot, the Druze Lieutenant Majed Karameh, defected from Adma airfield located in the

East Beirut canton The East Beirut canton, sometimes referred to as Marounistan, or Opp Central, was a Christian-dominated geopolitical region that existed in Lebanon from 1976 until its gradual erosion following the Taif Agreement and the end of the country's Leba ...

, and flew his Aérospatiale SA 342K Gazelle attack helicopter to the Druze-controlled Chouf, where it was apprehended upon landing and transported by a PLA MAZ-537G tank transporter to the Saïd el-Khateeb Barracks at

in the

. This particular helicopter appears to have never been used in combat by the PLA (since they had no aviation component, and therefore lacked the technically proficient personnel to help fly and maintain the captured airframe), which ended up being simply placed on storage at Hammana for the remainder of the Civil War.

Administrative organization and illegal activities

The stronghold of the PSP/PLA laid in the Jabal Barouk area within the Chouf, which they turned into a semi-autonomous Canton in the early 1980s, known unofficially as the 'Druze Mountain' (

: ''Jabal al-Duruz''). Centred at the Druze town of

– the PSP's political and military HQ – the canton comprised the

Aley Aley ( ar, عاليه) is a major city in Lebanon. It is the capital of the Aley District and fourth largest city in Lebanon. The city is located on Mount Lebanon, 15 km uphill from Beirut on the freeway to Damascus. Aley has the nick ...

and

s, including the historic towns of

Moukhtara , alternate_name = , image = HARVEY(1861) p008 PALACE OF SAID BAG JUMBULAH AT MOKTARAH.jpg , alt = , caption = The Jumblatt family palace in Moukhtara, 1861 , map_type = Lebanon , map_alt = , latitude = , longitude = , map_size = , locatio ...

(the Jumblatt family's feudal seat near

Deir al-Qamar Deir al-Qamar ( ar, دَيْر الْقَمَر, lit=Monastery of the moon, translit=Dayr al-qamar), is a city south-east of Beirut in south-central Lebanon. It is located five kilometres outside of Beiteddine in the Chouf District of the Mount ...

, and

Bhamdoun Bhamdoun ( ar, بحمدون), is a town in Lebanon from Beirut on the main road that leads to Damascus and in the suburbs of the main tourist city of Aley, lying at an altitude of above the Lamartine valley. Two separate villages compose the to ...

, and the Iqlim al-Kharrub coastal enclave south of

, which was added to the canton in March 1984. At

west Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

, the PLA had since 1976-77 a presence at the Ain el-Mreisseh seafront quarters of Dar el-Mreisseh district and the Corniche el-Mazraa of the Msaytbeh district, and controlled since May 1985 the Druze-populated Karakol el-Druze quarter, parts of the Hamra district and a large portion of Rue Jabal el-Arab in the Watta el-Msaytbeh quarter, the latter a small Druze street that housed the PSP's main political offices in the capital city. From the Israeli withdrawal from the Chouf in 1983 to the end of the civil war in 1990, the PSP ran a highly effective and well-organized civil service, the "Civilian Administration of the Mountain" (CAM or CAOM), in the areas under its control (the Chouf and

s). The CAM was set up on 1 October 1983 at Beiteddine, headed by an eight-man supreme council that included a central committee and a general congress. Its own 23 bureaus staffed by 3,000 public employees provided everything from education to medical care and also employed 2,000 seasonal workers in agricultural and industrial projects in the Chouf. To finance the administration, a Druze-run Holding, the COGECO group, was made responsible for running illegal activities at the clandestine ports of

Khalde Khaldah ( ar, خلدة) is a coastal town located south of Beirut, Lebanon. It is famous as a tourist destination in the summer, especially for its various beach resorts. The southern portion of Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport is loca ...

and Jieh in the Iqlim al-Kharrub coastal enclave, which included the importation of fuel from

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

drug-trafficking The illegal drug trade or drug trafficking is a global black market dedicated to the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of prohibited drugs. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs through ...

and

gambling Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three el ...

by a network of PSP-run Hotels and illegal Casinos. Additional revenues were generated by leaving tolls on the transit trade of agricultural products and other goods at a number of in-land PLA road checkpoints, whilst the expatriated Druze community in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

provided financial support. Beiteddine was also the home of the PSP/PLA media services, responsible for editing its official newspaper, "The News" (

: ''Al-Anba'a'') and operated since February 1984 their own radio station, the "

Voice of the Mountain The Voice of the Mountain ( ar, صوت الجبل, ''Sawt al-Jabal'') was a radio station operated by the Progressive Socialist Party during the Lebanese Civil War. History and profile Although its beginning was in 1983, the broadcasting of the '' ...

" (

: ''Iza'at Sawt al-Djabal'') or "La Voix de la Montagne" in French.

Controversy

Historically, the

Druze in Lebanon Lebanese Druze ( ar, دروز لبنان, durūz lubnān) are Lebanese people who are Druze. The Druze faith is a monotheistic and Abrahamic religion, and an ethnoreligious esoteric group originating from the Near East who self identify as ...

managed to maintain for centuries a small, hardy community in the Chouf Mountains overlooking Beirut surrounded by a sea of potential enemies, both

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

and

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

, and they have a reputation of being savage fighters known for their tenacious battle spirit. Their esprit de corps and brutal methods often convinced their opponents to flee, whilst those who decided to stay and fight never lived to tell the tale. However, the Lebanese Druze have also been amiable to whoever controls the Chouf region at any given time, and they were pragmatic with their dealings with foreign powers such as the Israelis, Americans and Syrians. Long-standing enemies since the 1860s, the Druze have always been at odds with the

Maronites The Maronites ( ar, الموارنة; syr, ܡܖ̈ܘܢܝܐ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group native to the Eastern Mediterranean and Levant region of the Middle East, whose members traditionally belong to the Maronite Church, with the largest ...

, and acts of barbarism on both sides have bedevilled their ability to co-exist for centuries past. On 16 March 1977, the PSP leader Kamal Jumblatt was ambushed and killed in his car near Baakline in the Chouf by unidentified gunmen (allegedly, fighters from the pro-Syrian faction of the

Syrian Social Nationalist Party The Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) or is a Syrian nationalist party operating in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine. It advocates the establishment of a Greater Syrian nation state spanning the Fertile Crescent, including present- ...

or SSNP, acting in collusion with the Syrian military commander of the

region, Colonel Ibrahim Houeijy);Rabinovich, ''The War for Lebanon'' (1989), p. 77. believing that the perpetrators were members of the predominately Christian

Phalangist The Kataeb Party ( ar, حزب الكتائب اللبنانية '), also known in English as the Phalanges, is a Christian political party in Lebanon. The party played a major role in the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990). In decline in the la ...

Kataeb Regulatory Forces The Kataeb Regulatory Forces – KRF ( ar, قوى الكتائب النظامية, translit=Quwwāt al-Katāʾib an-Niẓāmiyyah) or Forces Regulatoires des Kataeb (FRK) in French, were the military wing of the right-wing Lebanese Christian Ka ...

(KRF) or

Tigers Militia The Tigers militia ( ar, نمور الأحرار, transliterated: ''Numūr'' or ''Al-Noumour''), also known as NLP Tigers ( ar, links=no, نمور الأحرار , ''Numur al-Ahrar'') or PNL "Lionceaux" in French, was the military wing of the ...

s, PLF militiamen extracted swift retribution on the local Maronite population living in the intermixed towns and villages around Baakline. Despite the hasty dispatch on 17 March of 4,000

troops from the

Arab Deterrent Force The Arab Deterrent Force (ADF; ar, قوات الردع العربية) was an international peacekeeping force created by the Arab League in the extraordinary Riyadh Summit on 17–18 October 1976, attended only by heads of state from Egypt, Kuw ...

(ADF) to keep the peace in the Chouf, it is estimated that about 177–250 Maronite villagers were killed in reprisal actions (known as the Chouf massacres) at the towns of

and

Barouk Barouk ( ar, باروك) is a village in the Chouf District of Mount Lebanon Governorate in Lebanon. Barouk is located 52 kilometers southeast of Beirut. Its average elevation is 1000 to 1200 meters above sea level and its total land area consists ...

, and at the villages of Mazraat el-Chouf, Maaser el-Chouf, Botmeh, Kfar Nabrakh, Fraydis,

Machghara Machghara ( ar, مشغرة), also spelled Mashghara, is a town in the Beqaa Valley of Lebanon, situated in the Western Beqaa District and south of the Beqaa Governorate. It lies just to the northwest of Sohmor and southwest of Lake Qaraoun, south ...

, Baadaran, Shurit, Ain Zhalta and Brih ( St George's Church attack). During the

, the predominantly Maronite

militia occupied the Chouf District and tried to impose its authority by force, allegedly killing some 145 Druze civilians at

Kfar Matta KFAR is a commercial radio station programming news/talk radio, talk in Fairbanks, Alaska, United States, broadcasting on 660 Amplitude Modulation, AM. Founded in 1939 by industrialist Austin E. Lathrop, KFAR is the oldest radio station in Fai ...

in September 1983 (although other sources allege that the death toll mounted to 200 people), followed by other killings at Sayed Abdullah, Salimeh and

Ras el-Matn Ras el-Matn or (Ras el-Metn) or (Ra's al-Matn) ( ar, رأس المتن) is a Lebanon, Lebanese town and municipality in the Baabda District of Mount Lebanon Governorate stretching over 1300 hectares (13 km² - 5 mi²). The town has a pop ...

in the

. The Lebanese Forces command later accused the Druze PLA of committing "unprecedented massacres" in the Chouf – in order to deny support, cover or a visible community for the LF to protect, the Druze PSP/PLA leadership implemented a 'territorial cleansing' policy to drain the Christian population from the region, during which Walid Jumblatt's militia forces overran between 31 August and 13 September 1983 sixty-two Maronite villages (including Bmarian,

Bireh Al-Bireh, al-Birah, or el-Bira ( ar, البيرة; also known historically as Castrum Mahomeria, Magna Mahomeria, Mahomeria Major, Birra, or Beirothah) is a State of Palestine, Palestinian city in the central West Bank, north of Jerusalem. It i ...

, Maaser Beit ed-Dine, Chartoun, Ain el-Hour, Bourjayne, Fawara, and Maaser el-Chouf), slaughtered 1,500 people and drove another 50,000 out of their homes in the mountainous areas east and west of Beirut. In retaliation, some 127 Druze civilians were killed by LF militiamen between 5–7 September at the Shahhar region, Kfarmatta, Al-Binnay,

Ain Ksour Ain Ksour ( ar, عين كسور), is a village in Aley District, Lebanon. Municipal elections are held every four years. History In 1838, Eli Smith noted the place, called Ain Kesur'', located in ''El-Ghurb el-Fokany''; Upper el-Ghurb.Robinso ...

, and

Aabey Aabey, also spelled Abey ( ar, عبيه), is a village located in Mount Lebanon, in Aley District of Mount Lebanon Governorate. It is located from Beirut and has an altitude of 800 m (2,600 feet). It is bordered by Kfarmatta (South), A ...

, where the LF also desecrated the tomb of a prominent Druze religious man. It is estimated that these 'tit-for-tat' killings ultimately led to the displacement of 20,000 Druze and 163,670 Christian villagers from the Chouf. Like other Lebanese militias, the PLA was also involved in the kidnapping of political adversaries. In one occasion, on 23 September 1984 PLA fighters attempted to seize two Lebanese Army soldiers posted on sentry duty outside the Barbir Hospital in the Ouza'i district of West Beirut, though the latter managed to escape on foot towards the Army-manned Ojjeh checkpoint situated nearby at the Green Line, despite being pursued by their captors in a civilian car. Later on 8 September 1988, the deputy for

Jezzine Jezzine ( ''Jizzīn'') is a town in Lebanon, located from Sidon and south of Beirut. It is the capital of Jezzine District. Surrounded by mountain peaks, pine forests (like the Bkassine Pine Forest), and at an average altitude of 950 m (3 ...

in the Lebanese Parliament, Dr Farid Serhal, was seized by PLA militiamen at a checkpoint also in the Ouza'i district of West Beirut and driven off to the

Le Bristol Hotel Beirut Le Bristol was a famous 5 stars luxury hotel located in Verdun, Lebanon at Madame Curie Street, at the heart of Beirut where shopping centres, restaurants and Beirut's business centres are located. It was opened in 1951 and was famous for both i ...

Rue Madame Curie Rue Madame Curie is a street in Beirut, Lebanon. The street, which is named in honor of Marie Curie, the Polish–French physicist–chemist, begins at Rue Badr Demachkieh in the Raouché neighborhood of the Ras Beirut district, running west–eas ...

Ras Beirut Ras Beirut ("Tip of Beirut") is an upscale residential neighborhood of Beirut. It has a mixed population of Christians, Muslims, Druze, and secular individuals. Ras Beirut is home to some of Beirut's historically prominent families, such as th ...

, where he was temporarily held hostage.

The PLA in the Lebanese Civil War

The early phase 1975–1982

When the

began in April 1975, as a member of the LNM the Druze PSP was an active founder of its military wing, the Joint Forces (LNM-JF), and during the 1975–77 phase of the Lebanese Civil War, they were heavily committed in several battles. At the

in October 1975, the Popular Commandos Forces led by Ramez Assaf engaged Christian

(KRF) and

fighters, and later participated in the 'Spring Offensive' held against

East Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

and

, battling the

Lebanese Front The Lebanese Front ( ar, الجبهة اللبنانية, ''al-Jabha al-Lubnaniyya'') or ''Front Libanais'' in French, was a coalition of mainly Lebanese Nationalist parties formed in 1976 by majority Christian intellectuals during the Lebane ...

militias at the

in March–April 1976. At the former location, the PSP Popular Commandos Forces allied with the

(LAA) battled

(ISF) and

Army of Free Lebanon The Army of Free Lebanon – AFL ( ar, جيش لبنان الحر, ''Jayish Lubnan al-Horr'') or "Colonel Barakat's Army" ( ar, جيش بركات, ''Jayish Barakat''), also designated Armée du Liban Libre (ALL) and Armée du Colonel Barakat in ...

's (AFL) units during an unsuccessful attempt to raid the AFL Headquarters at the Shukri Ghanem Barracks complex in the Fayadieh district. Kamal Jumblatt's opposition to the Syrian military intervention of June 1976 in support of the official Lebanese Government and his adversaries of the Christian

militias, resulted in the PSP/PLF fighting

troops at the Battle of Bhamdoun in the

. Between 13 and 17 October 1976, the Druze PSP's Popular Liberation Forces and their allies of the

Sunni Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagr ...

Al-Mourabitoun The Independent Nasserite Movement – INM ( ar-at, حركة الناصريين المستقلين-المرابطون, translit=Harakat al-Nasiriyin al-Mustaqillin) or simply Al-Murabitoun ( lit. ''The Steadfast''), also termed variously Mouveme ...

militia, the LAA and the PLO inflicted heavy losses on the Syrian 3rd Armoured Division when they tried to enter

by force.Sex & Abi-Chahine, ''Modern Conflicts 2 – The Lebanese Civil War, From 1975 to 1991 and Beyond'' (2021), p. 6. In 1977, PLF militia forces were also involved in the fierce fighting that engulfed the northern port city of

Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to: Cities and other geographic units Greece *Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in ...

, clashing once again with the Christian

militias and the

The Mountain War 1983–84

During the June 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon the PSP/PLA remained neutral, with Walid Jumblatt refusing to allow PLO units to operate within Druze territory and the PSP militia forces did not fought against the

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three servic ...

(IDF), even though they supported their arch-enemies the

Maronite The Maronites ( ar, الموارنة; syr, ܡܖ̈ܘܢܝܐ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group native to the Eastern Mediterranean and Levant region of the Middle East, whose members traditionally belong to the Maronite Church, with the larges ...

Kataeb Party The Kataeb Party ( ar, حزب الكتائب اللبنانية '), also known in English as the Phalanges, is a Christian political party in Lebanon. The party played a major role in the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990). In decline in the lat ...

and its military arm, the

(LF) militia.Katz, Russel and Volstad, ''Armies in Lebanon 1982–84'' (1985), p. 33. However, when President

Amine Gemayel Amine Pierre Gemayel ( ar, أمين بيار الجميٌل ; (born 22 January 1942) is a Lebanese Maronite politician who served as President of Lebanon from 1982 to 1988. Born in Bikfaya, his father was Pierre Gemayel, the founder of the K ...

refused to grant the Druze community the expected political representation, Walid Jumblatt formed in response in July 1983 a Palestinian- and Syrian-backed military coalition, the Lebanese National Salvation Front (LNSF), that rallied several Lebanese Muslim and Christian parties and militias opposed to the U.S.-sponsored

May 17 Agreement The May 17 Agreement of 1983 was an agreement signed between Lebanon and Israel during the Lebanese Civil War on May 17, 1983, after Israel invaded Lebanon to end cross border attacks and besieged Beirut in 1982. It called for the withdrawal of ...

with

. Led by Jumblatt's PSP/PLA, the alliance gathered its rivals of the Druze Yazbaki clan, the

(SSNP), the

and the

Lebanese Communist Party The Lebanese Communist Party (LCP), abbr. PCL is a communist party in Lebanon. It was founded in 1924 by the Lebanese intellectual, writer and reporter Yusuf Yazbek and Fu'ad al-Shamali, a tobacco worker from Bikfaya. History Creation The Syr ...

(LCP)/

Popular Guard The Popular Guard or Popular Guards – PG ( ar, الحرس الشعبي , ''Al-Harās al-Sha‘abī'') or Garde Populaire – GP in French, was the military wing of the Lebanese Communist Party (LCP), which fought in the 1975–1977 phase of ...

s, which fought the LF, the

(LAF) and the U.S. Marines contingent of the

Multinational Force A Multinational force is a multinational operation which may be defensive, offensive, or for peacekeeping purposes. In multinational operations, many countries form an alliance to carry them out. Multinational forces include: * Supreme Headquart ...

(MNF II) in the Chouf and Aley Districts and at West Beirut between September 1983 and February 1984. During that conflict, the PSP/PLA clashed with the Lebanese Army's 4th infantry Brigade units reinforced by the 101st Ranger Battalion from the 10th Airmobile BrigadeHokayem, ''L'armée libanaise pendant la guerre: un instrument du pouvoir du président de la République (1975-1985)'' (2012), p. 88. fighting desperately to retain their positions at

, and Al-Beniyeh in the

. Druze radio operators from the PSP/PLA Signal Corps managed to intercept, alter, and retransmit Lebanese Army radio communications, which allowed them to impersonate the LAF command in east Beirut by ordering 4th Infantry Brigade units to retreat to safer positions. Simultaneously, they ordered Lebanese Army's artillery units positioned at east Beirut to shell their own troops' positions in the western Chouf, which wreaked havoc among 4th Infantry Brigade units and forced them to fall back in disorder towards the coast while being subjected to friendly fire. On 22 March 1984, Druze PLA militiamen backed by the

Shia Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that the Prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his S ...

Amal militia The Lebanese Resistance Regiments ( ar, أفواج المقاومة اللبنانية , ''ʾAfwāj al-Muqāwama al-Lubnāniyya'', ʾAMAL), also designated Lebanese Resistance Battalions, Lebanese Resistance Detachments, Lebanese Resistance Leg ...

drove their erstwhile allies of the

militia and other smaller factions from their positions along the Green Line in the central districts of Beirut, ostensibly to prevent any violations of the ceasefire that came into effect after the decisive defeat of the Lebanese Army and the Lebanese Forces during the

February 6 Intifada The February 6 Intifada or February 6 uprising in West Beirut took place on 6 February 1984 during the Lebanese Civil War.Young, Michael. 7 February 2004.Remembering the uprising of Feb. 6, 1984." ''The Daily Star''. It was a battle where the Shi ...

. Later on 24 July, the PLA battled again the

militia at West Beirut, until the fighting was curbed by the intervention of the predominately

Sixth Brigade.

The War of the Camps 1985–87

When the

Coastal War The coast, also known as the coastline or seashore, is defined as the area where land meets the ocean, or as a line that forms the boundary between the land and the coastline. The Earth has around of coastline. Coasts are important zones in n ...

broke out in March–April 1985, the PSP/PLA joined in a Syrian-backed coalition with the

Popular Nasserist Organization The Popular Nasserist Organization – PNO ( ar, التنظيم الشعبي الناصري, translit=Al-Tanzim al-Sha'aby al-Nassery) or Organisation Populaire Nassérienne (OPN) in French, is a Sidon-based Nasserist party originally formed ...

(PNO), the

and the

Shi'ite Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, most n ...

Amal Movement, which defeated the Christian

(LF) attempts to establish bridgeheads at

Damour Damour ( ar, الدامور) is a Lebanese Christian town that is south of Beirut. The name of the town is derived from the name of the Phoenician god Damoros who symbolized immortality ( in Arabic). Damour also remained the capital of Mount ...

and

Sidon Sidon ( ; he, צִידוֹן, ''Ṣīḏōn'') known locally as Sayda or Saida ( ar, صيدا ''Ṣaydā''), is the third-largest city in Lebanon. It is located in the South Governorate, of which it is the capital, on the Mediterranean coast. ...

. As soon this battle ended, they joined in May another powerful coalition that gathered Amal and LCP/

s militia forces backed by

,Joe Stork,
The War of the Camps, The War of the Hostages
in ''MERIP Reports'', No. 133. (June 1985), pp. 3–7, 22. the

, and anti- Arafat dissident Palestinian guerrilla factions pitted against an alliance of pro-Arafat

Palestinian refugee camps Camps are set up by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to accommodate Palestinian refugees registered with UNRWA, who fled or were expelled during the 1948 Palestinian ...

' PLO militias, the

, the

Communist Action Organization in Lebanon The Communist Action Organization in Lebanon – CAOL ( ar, منظمة العمل الشيوعي في لبنان , ''munaẓẓamah al-‘amal al-shuyū‘ī fī lubnān''), also known as Organization of Communist Action in Lebanon (OCAL) or Orga ...

(OCAL), the Sixth of February Movement and the Kurdish Democratic Party – Lebanon (KDP-L). Although the PSP/PLA helped Amal in defeating the Al-Mourabitoun after a week of heavy fighting, they were reluctant to suppress altogether the PLO and KDP-L militias defending the refugee camps, preferring instead to stay out of the fight and remain militarily neutral in the subsequent conflict. Despite the PLA's "neutrality" posture, however, they did allowed the pro-Arafat Palestinian fighters to station their artillery on Druze-controlled areas. Between July and November 1985, the PLA battled Amal for the control of some key positions in West Beirut previously held by the

(MNF II), until a cease-fire agreement mediated by the Syrian military intelligence chief in Lebanon,

Major general Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...

Ghazi Kanaan Ghazi Kanaan ( ar, غازي كنعان; 1942 – 12 October 2005), also known as Abu Yo'roub, was Syria's interior minister from 2004 to 2005, and long-time head of Syria's security apparatus in Lebanon. His violent death during an investigat ...

, was signed in late November. The terms of the agreement clearly favored Amal, which forced Walid Jumblatt on 24 November to publicly "reconsider" the military presence of his own PSP/PLA militia in the western sector of the Lebanese Capital. In January 1987, PLA bodyguards provided protection to the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

's special envoy

Terry Waite Terence Hardy Waite (born 31 May 1939) is an English humanitarian and author. Waite was the Assistant for Anglican Communion Affairs for the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, in the 1980s. As an envoy for the Church of England, he ...

during his trip to West Beirut to negotiate the release of several British hostages then held by the

Islamic Jihad Organization The Islamic Jihad Organization – IJO ( ar, حركة الجهاد الإسلامي, Ḥarakat al-Jihād al-'Islāmiyy) or ''Organisation du Jihad Islamique'' (OJI) in French, but best known as "Islamic Jihad" (Arabic: ''Jihad al-Islami'') for ...

(IJO), though they were unable to prevent him of being tricked and abducted in turn by the IJO on 20 January. Besides personal protection, the PLA also provided security to the Commodore Hotel at Rue Baalbek on the Hamra district of West Beirut – which housed many foreign correspondents on assignment in the war-torn Lebanese Capital and served as an international news media center – and to the Soviet Embassy at Rue Mar Elias in the Ain el-Tineh quarter in

, also in West Beirut. The following month, the PLA and Amal again turned against each other in what became known as the "War of the Flag". The conflict was started when a PLA fighter walked to the Channel 7 TV station ( French: ''Télé Liban – Canal 7'') building in the Tallet el-Khayat sector at Msaytbeh and replaced the Lebanese national flag hoisted there by the Druze five-coloured flag, which was interpreted by Amal militiamen as a deliberate act of provocation. A new round of brutal fighting soon spread throughout western Beirut, and although Amal forces initially managed to restore the Lebanese national flag on the Channel 7 building, they were subsequently overpowered by an alliance of PLA, LCP/

and SSNP militias, and driven out of large portions of West Beirut. On 21-22 February, the week of fighting was ended by the arrival in West Beirut of 7,000 Syrian Commando troops under the command of Maj. Gen. Kanaan, assisted by Lebanese

(ISF) gendarmes, who immediately closed over fifty militia "offices" and banned the carrying of weapons in public, detaining in the process many young men with beards suspected of being militiamen. That same year, the PLA fought again the

in the

, after the predominately

Christian Maronite The Maronite Church is an Eastern Catholic Churches, Eastern Catholic ''sui iuris'' particular church in full communion with the pope and the worldwide Catholic Church, with self-governance under the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. Th ...

Fifth brigade had been deployed at the strategic town of

Souk El Gharb Souk El Gharb ( ar, سوق الغرب), also spelled Suk, Sug al, ul, Suq), is a town located in the Aley District, Mount Lebanon Governorate, in Lebanon and its name translates to "Western Market". Before the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), thi ...

to prevent Druze artillerymen from shelling the Lebanese Capital.

The later years 1988–1990

During the 1988–1990 Liberation War, the PLA fought alongside pro-Syrian

Lebanese Forces – Executive Command The Lebanese Forces – Executive Command or LFEC (Arabic: القوات اللبنانية - القيادة التنفيذية , ''Al-Quwwat al-Lubnaniyya – Al-Qiyada Al-Tanfeethiyya''), was a splinter group from the Lebanese Forces led by Eli ...

(LFEC) and

militias backed by the

against

General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of highest military ranks, high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers t ...

Michel Aoun Michel Naim Aoun ( ar, ميشال نعيم عون ; born 30 September 1933) is a Lebanese politician and former military general who served as the President of Lebanon from 31 October 2016 until 30 October 2022. Born in Haret Hreik to a Mar ...

's Lebanese Army faction at the second battle of

on 13 August 1989. The ground offensive was preceded by a massive and sustained Syrian artillery barrage on the positions held by Aounist troops, who repulsed the assault by inflicting some 20-30 casualties on the PSP/PLA attackers. Later on 13 October 1990, the PLA participated in the final offensive that brought a decisive end to the

, assisting

(SSNP) and LFEC militiamen and Syrian troops in the capture of Gen. Aoun's HQ at the Presidential Palace in

Baabda Baabda ( ar, بعبدا) is the capital city of Baabda District as well as the capital of Mount Lebanon Governorate, western Lebanon. Baabda was the capital city of the autonomous Ottoman Mount Lebanon. Baabda is known for the Ottoman Castle (t ...

Disbandment

Upon the end of the war in October 1990, PSP/PLA militia forces operating in Beirut and the Chouf were ordered by the Lebanese Government on 28 March 1991 to disband and surrender their heavy weaponry by 30 April as stipulated by the

Taif Agreement The Taif Agreement ( ar, اتفاق الطائف), officially known as the ( ar, وثيقة الوفاق الوطني, label=none'')'', was reached to provide "the basis for the ending of the civil war and the return to political normalcy in Le ...

to the

and the

(LAF).Rabah, ''Conflict on Mount Lebanon: The Druze, the Maronites and Collective Memory'' (2020), p. 291. Accordingly, the PLA's military hardware was collected and delivered to two central parks under Lebanese Army and Syrian supervision, one being located at the

barracks where all the artillery pieces were stored, and the other at the Ain Zhalta barracks where the remaining equipment that included tanks, APCs, howitzers, anti-tank guns, tank transporters and their respective trailers, cargo trucks, and truck-mounted MBRLs was stored in turn. A total of 3,300 former PLA militiamen, including 50 officers, requested integration into the structure of the LAF, but only 1,300 of these applicants were actually integrated. Some 800 ex-PLA fighters joined the re-formed

during the first stage, 160 of whom were attached to the

(ISF) or the Lebanese Customs Administration. At a later stage, probably towards the beginning of 1992, an additional 500 Druze militiamen were integrated into the LAF and the ISF, with the process being completed by mid-1994. Despite the order to disarm, some PSP/PLA guerrilla cells continued to operate in

southern Lebanon Southern Lebanon () is the area of Lebanon comprising the South Governorate and the Nabatiye Governorate. The two entities were divided from the same province in the early 1990s. The Rashaya and Western Beqaa Districts, the southernmost distric ...

against the

(IDF) and their

South Lebanon Army The South Lebanon Army or South Lebanese Army (SLA; ar, جيش لبنان الجنوبي, Jayš Lubnān al-Janūbiyy), also known as the Lahad Army ( ar, جيش لحد, label=none) and referred to as the De Facto Forces (DFF) by the United Nat ...

(SLA) proxies in the "

Security Belt The Security Belt Forces (Arabic: قوات الحزام الأمني) is a paramilitary force based in Southern Yemen and forms the elite military wing of the Southern Transitional Council. The force operates in the governorates of Aden, Lahij an ...

" until the final Israeli pull-out in May 2000. The PLA is no longer active.

Uniforms and insignia

Usually, PLA militiamen wore in the field a mix of military uniforms, western civilian clothes and traditional Druze garb,Katz and Volstad, ''Arab Armies of the Middle East Wars 2'' (1988), p. 37. though they were known to have worn a variety of battle dress, depending on whom they allied to and what other armed forces were occupying their territory.Katz, Russel, and Volstad, ''Armies in Lebanon'' (1985), pp. 44–45, Plate G3.

Fatigue clothing

Besides ex-

olive green Olive is a dark yellowish-green color, like that of unripe or green olives. As a color word in the English language, it appears in late Middle English. Shaded toward gray, it becomes olive drab. Variations Olivine Olivine is the typical ...

fatigues (a special domestic variant of the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

OG-107 cotton sateen utilities), a light mustard khaki work uniform of Soviet origin was also issued to PLA combat troops, which consisted of a cotton shirt and pants. The shirt featured a six-buttoned front and two unpleated, pointed breast pockets closed by pointed flaps, was provided with shoulder straps and had long sleeves with buttoned cuffs. It was worn with matching trousers, which had two side slashed pockets, two pleated cargo pockets closed by straight, dual-buttoned flaps, and two internal pockets at the back, closed by pointed flaps. Locally-produced PLO copies of

Iraqi Army The Iraqi Ground Forces (Arabic: القوات البرية العراقية), or the Iraqi Army (Arabic: الجيش العراقي), is the ground force component of the Iraqi Armed Forces. It was known as the Royal Iraqi Army up until the coup ...

olive green and light khaki fatigues, which comprised a shirt with a six-buttoned front, two pleated breast pockets closed by pointed flaps, shoulder straps and long sleeves with buttoned cuffs, plus matching trousers provided with two side slashed pockets and one internal pocket at the back, were widely worn by PLA militiamen;

olive green fatigues were used as well. Camouflage uniforms consisted of Czechoslovakian Vz 60 "Salamander" (''Mlok'') pattern fatigues, Iraqi

Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally speaking, upland (or uplands) refers to ranges of hills, typically from up to while highland (or highlands) is ...

pattern (a.k.a. "Iraqi Woodland") fatigues, Italian M1929 Telo mimetico fatigues, West German

Bundeswehr The ''Bundeswehr'' (, meaning literally: ''Federal Defence'') is the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. The ''Bundeswehr'' is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part con ...

1956 Splinter pattern jackets, Syrian or PLO Lizard horizontal and vertical patterns' fatigues, Syrian copies of the Pakistani Arid Brushstroke (nicknamed "Wisp") fatigues, captured U.S. Woodland

Battle Dress Uniform The Battle Dress Uniform (BDU) is a camouflaged combat uniform that was used by the United States Armed Forces as their standard combat uniform from the early 1980s to the mid-2000s. Since then, it has been replaced or supplanted in every br ...

s (BDU), and Palestinian Brushstroke fatigues; the latter was a PLO

Brushstroke ''Brushstroke'' is a sculpture by Roy Lichtenstein. There are two copies. The original was created in 2001 for the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, Spain. The second was delivered to the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden ...

variation incorporating very dark olive and purplish-brown strokes with very long and thin brush trails on a sandy-colored background. The PLA did develop though their own unique camouflage pattern, a hybrid

Lizard Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group is paraphyletic since it excludes the snakes and Amphisbaenia alt ...

/Pakistani Arid Brushstroke design, which was locally produced. T-shirts in US

pattern were sometimes used. Syrian-supplied OG US

M-1965 field jacket The M-1965 Field Jacket (also known as M65, M-65 Field Jacket, and Coat, Cold Weather, Man's Field), eponymously named after the year it was introduced, is a popular field jacket initially designed for the United States Armed Forces under the ''MI ...

s, captured Israeli olive Dubon

Parka A parka or anorak is a type of coat with a hood, often lined with fur or faux fur. This kind of garment is a staple of Inuit clothing, traditionally made from caribou or seal skin, for hunting and kayaking in the frigid Arctic. Some Inuit ano ...

sKatz, Russel, and Volstad, ''Armies in Lebanon'' (1985), p. 45, Plate G3. and ex-PLO Iraqi copies of the

Pakistan Army The Pakistan Army (, ) is the Army, land service branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The roots of its modern existence trace back to the British Indian Army that ceased to exist following the partition of India, Partition of British India, wh ...

olive-brown woollen pullover (a.k.a. '') provided with breast pockets and shoulder straps, were worn in cold weather.

Headgear

PSP Beret and Soviet made Afghanistan War Panama Hat

Usual headgear consisted of ex-

Baseball cap A baseball cap is a type of soft hat with a rounded crown and a stiff bill projecting in front. The front of the hat typically displays a design or a logo (historically, usually only a sports team, namely a baseball team, or names of relevant co ...

s (a domestic version of the US Army OG-106 Baseball cap), PLO patrol caps in lizard camouflage pattern, patrol caps in "Iraqi Woodland" camouflage pattern, and US BDU caps in U.S. Woodland camouflage pattern, and

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

midnight blue Midnight blue is a dark shade of blue named for its resemblance to the apparently blue color of a moonlit night sky around full moon. Midnight blue is identifiably blue to the eye in sunlight or full-spectrum light, but can appear black unde ...

beret A beret ( or ; ; eu, txapela, ) is a soft, round, flat-crowned cap, usually of woven, hand-knitted wool, crocheted cotton, wool felt, or acrylic fibre. Mass production of berets began in 19th century France and Spain, and the beret remains ...

s worn French-style, pulled to the left, whilst "commando" units wore

red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

maroon Maroon ( US/ UK , Australia ) is a brownish crimson color that takes its name from the French word ''marron'', or chestnut. "Marron" is also one of the French translations for "brown". According to multiple dictionaries, there are var ...

berets, although berets made of Pakistani brushstroke and PLA hybrid lizard/Pakistani brushstroke camouflage cloth were also worn by these special operations' formations. Soviet M-38 Field Hats in mustard khaki cotton (

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

: ''Panamanka'') were worn in the summer, replaced by the traditional Druze tan knitted woollen cap in the winter; a

Ushanka An ushanka ( rus, уша́нка, p=ʊˈʂankə, from , "ears"), also called an ''ushanka-hat'' ( rus, ша́пка-уша́нка, p=ˈʂapkə ʊˈʂankə), is a Russian fur cap with ear-covering flaps that can be tied up to the crown of the cap, ...

-style shaggy black

fur Fur is a thick growth of hair that covers the skin of mammals. It consists of a combination of oily guard hair on top and thick underfur beneath. The guard hair keeps moisture from reaching the skin; the underfur acts as an insulating blanket t ...

hat was sometimes seen. A black-and-white or red-and-white

kaffiyeh The keffiyeh or kufiya ( ar, كُوفِيَّة, kūfīyah, relating to Kufa, link=no), also known in Arabic as a ghutrah (), shemagh ( '), (), in Kurdish as a Shemagh ''(''شه‌ماغ'')'' or Serwîn (سه‌روین) and in Persian, as a ...

was also worn around the neck as a

foulard A foulard is a lightweight fabric, either twill or plain-woven, made of silk or a mix of silk and cotton. Foulards usually have a small printed design of various colors. ''Foulard'' can also refer by metonymy to articles of clothing, such as scar ...

or wrapped around the head to conceal identity. In the field, PLA infantrymen could be found wearing a variety of helmet types, consisting of Syrian-supplied East German M-56, Soviet SSh-60 and SSh-68 steel helmets or captured US M-1 and French M1951 NATO ( French: ''Casque Mle 1951 OTAN'') steel helmets, and Israeli Orlite OR-201 (Model 76) ballistic helmets. Armoured crews received Soviet black tanker's padded cloth helmets or wore US fibreglass "bone dome" Combat Vehicle Crewman (CVC) helmets and CTVC DH-132 helmets in ballistic Kevlar captured from the Lebanese Army. In addition to helmets, some PLA militiamen also used captured

flak jacket The two components of an obsolete British military flak vest. On the left, the nylon vest. On the right, the several layers of ballistic nylon that provide the actual protection A flak jacket or flak vest is a form of body armor. A flak jacke ...

s, either the Ballistic Nylon US M-1952/69 "Half-collar" vest and the Israeli-produced Kevlar Rabintex Industries Ltd Type III RAV 200 Protective Vest ("Shapats").

Footwear

Footwear was equally diverse. Black leather combat boots initially came from Lebanese Army stocksKatz, Russel, and Volstad, ''Armies in Lebanon'' (1985), pp. 44-45, Plate G3. or were provided by the PLO and the Syrians, complemented by Israeli black or brown leather paratrooper boots captured from the

and

high-top The high-top is a shoe that extends slightly over the wearer's ankle. It is commonly an athletic shoe, particularly for basketball. It is sometimes confused with the slightly shorter mid-top, which typically extends no higher than the wearer's a ...

Pataugas olive canvas-and-rubber patrol boots. Several models of civilian

sneakers Sneakers (also called trainers, athletic shoes, tennis shoes, gym shoes, kicks, sport shoes, flats, running shoes, or runners) are shoes primarily designed for sports or other forms of physical exercise, but which are now also widely used fo ...

or "trainers" and rubber

gumboots The Wellington boot was originally a type of leather boot adapted from Hessian boots, a style of military riding boot. They were worn and popularised by Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. The "Wellington" boot became a staple of pr ...

were also used by PLA militiamen.

Accoutrements

Web gear consisted on the US Army

M-1956 Load-Carrying Equipment The M-1956 Load-Carrying Equipment (LCE), also known as the Individual Load-Carrying Equipment (ILCE), was developed by the U.S. Army and first issued in the early 1960s. The M-1956 LCE was designed to replace the M-1945 Combat Pack, the M-1923 c ...

(LCE) in

khaki The color khaki (, ) is a light shade of tan with a slight yellowish tinge. Khaki has been used by many armies around the world for uniforms and equipment, particularly in arid or desert regions, where it provides camouflage relative to sandy ...

cotton canvas and the

All-purpose Lightweight Individual Carrying Equipment The All-Purpose Lightweight Individual Carrying Equipment (ALICE) is a set of load-carrying equipment adopted as United States Army Standard A on 17 January 1973 to replace the M-1956 Individual Load-Carrying Equipment (ILCE) and M-1967 Mo ...

(ALICE) in OG

Nylon Nylon is a generic designation for a family of synthetic polymers composed of polyamides ( repeating units linked by amide links).The polyamides may be aliphatic or semi-aromatic. Nylon is a silk-like thermoplastic, generally made from petro ...

captured from the Lebanese Army, ChiCom chest rigs in

cotton fabric for the AK-47 assault rifle and the SKS semi-automatic rifle, Soviet three-cell AK-47 magazine pouches in khaki or OG canvas, and even

IDF IDF or idf may refer to: Defence forces * Irish Defence Forces * Israel Defense Forces *Iceland Defense Force, of the US Armed Forces, 1951-2006 * Indian Defence Force, a part-time force, 1917 Organizations * Israeli Diving Federation * Interac ...

olive green

Ephod Combat Vests; several variants of locally-made, multi-pocket chest rigs and assault vests in camouflage cloth, khaki and OG canvas or nylon were also widely used. Anti-tank teams issued with the

rocket launcher received the correspondent Soviet rocket bag models in

canvas, the Gunner Backpack 6SH12, the Assistant Gunner Backpack and the Munitions Bag 6SH11; Polish and East German versions in rubberized canvas were employed as well.

Insignia

Apart from sector, corps and unit flags, the PLA apparently never devised a system of rank, branch or unit insignia of their own, although its personnel did wore a variety of field recognition signs. A full-colour cloth embroidered round patch bearing the PSP crest was sometimes worn on the left pocket of fatigue shirts. Berets were worn with the standard PLA cap badge placed above the right eye; issued in gilt metal for all-ranks, it was sometimes found pinned to Soviet sun hats, Baseball caps and even combat uniforms. White, red, olive green and black T-shirts stamped with either the PSP crest, the PLA badge, PLA unit and sub-unit insignia or the Party leaders' effigy were commonly worn by Druze fighters. A red cloth or plastic

brassard A brassard or armlet is an armband or piece of cloth or other material worn around the upper arm; the term typically refers to an item of uniform worn as part of military uniform or by police or other uniformed persons. Unit, role, rank b ...

of roughly triangular shape and attached to a shoulder strap, bearing the stamped full-colour

crest with the initials "PSP" below in white

Latin script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern Italy ...

, flanked by the inscription of the Sector to which the bearer was assigned to and surmounted by another inscription bearing "People's Liberation Army" in white

Arabic script The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used writing system in the world by number of countries using it or a script directly derived from it, and the ...

, was worn on the upper left arm (the Tanukh Brigade and Security Police Corps were issued their own versions in plastic). A simple red cloth or plastic oval armband bearing only the PSP crest with no lettering was also used. Steel helmets painted in red, marked with white stripes at the sides and the initials "PSP" were issued to Security Police Corps' troopers assigned patrol duties in urban areas.

In popular culture

The Druze PLA has made a few major film appearances, most notably in the 1981 West German anti-war film '' Circle of Deceit'' (

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

title: ''Die Fälschung''), where some of its fighters appear in a nocturnal pursuit scene driving

throughout the streets of west

. They are also mentioned in the 1990 American

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

action film Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include life ...

Navy SEALs The United States Navy Sea, Air, and Land (SEAL) Teams, commonly known as Navy SEALs, are the United States Navy, U.S. Navy's primary special operations force and a component of the United States Naval Special Warfare Command, Naval Special Wa ...

'' and in the 2001 American

action Action may refer to: * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video game Film * Action film, a genre of film * ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford * ''Action'' (1980 fil ...

thriller

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

Spy Game ''Spy Game'' is a 2001 American action thriller film directed by Tony Scott and starring Robert Redford and Brad Pitt. The film grossed $62 million in the United States and $143 million worldwide on a $115 million budget, and received mostly po ...

'', in a street fighting scene set during the

War of the Camps The War of the Camps ( ar, حرب المخيمات, ''Harb al-mukhayimat''), was a subconflict within the 1984–1990 phase of the Lebanese Civil War, in which the Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut were besieged by the Shia Amal militia. ...

Notes

References

* Afaf Sabeh McGowan, John Roberts, As'ad Abu Khalil, and Robert Scott Mason, ''Lebanon: A Country Study'', area handbook series, Headquarters, Department of the Army (DA Pam 550-24), Washington D.C. 1989. �

* 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. (in French) *Aïda Kanafani-Zahar, «La réconciliation des druzes et des chrétiens du Mont Liban ou le retour à un code coutumier», Critique internationale, n23 (2004), pp. 55-75. (in French) *Bassel Abi-Chahine, ''The People's Liberation Army Through the Eyes of a Lens, 1975–1991'', Éditions Dergham, Jdeideh (Beirut) 2019. * Beate Hamizrachi, ''The Emergence of South Lebanon Security Belt'', Praeger Publishers Inc., New York 1984. *Boutros Labaki & Khalil Abou Rjeily, ''Bilan des guerres du Liban (1975-1990)'', Collection "Comprendre le Moyen-Orient", Éditions L'Harmattan, Paris 1993. (in French) *Chris McNab, ''20th Century Military Uniforms'' (2nd ed.), Grange Books, Kent 2002. * Chris McNab, ''Soviet Submachine Guns of World War II: PPD-40, PPSh-41 and PPS'', Weapon series 33, Osprey Publishing Ltd, Oxford 2014. *

Edgar O'Ballance Major Edgar “Paddy” O'Ballance (17 July 1918, Dublin, Ireland – 8 July 2009, Wakebridge, Derbyshire, England) was an Irish-born British military journalist, researcher, defence commentator and academic lecturer specialising in intern ...

, ''Civil War in Lebanon, 1975–92'', Palgrave Macmillan, London 1998. * Elizabeth Bicard, ''Prospects for Lebanon – The Demobilization of the Lebanese Militias'', Centre for Lebanese Studies, Oxford (no date). * Éric Micheletti and Yves Debay, ''Liban – dix jours aux cœur des combats'', RAIDS magazine n.º41, October 1989 issue. (in French) * Farid El-Kazen, ''The Breakdown of the State in Lebanon 1967-1976'', I.B. Tauris, London 2000. �

* 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) �

*

Itamar Rabinovich Itamar Rabinovich ( he, איתמר רבינוביץ; born 1942) is the president of the Israel Institute (Washington and Jerusalem). He was Israel's Ambassador to the United States in the 1990s and former chief negotiator with Syria between 1993 ...

, ''The war for Lebanon, 1970–1985'', Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London 1989 (revised edition). , 0-8014-9313-7 �

* Jago Salmon, ''Massacre and Mutilation: Understanding the Lebanese Forces through their use of violence'', Workshop on the 'techniques of Violence in Civil War', PRIO, Oslo, 20–21 August 2004. �

* Jean Dunord, ''Liban: Les milices rendent leurs armes'', RAIDS magazine n.º65, October 1991 issue. (in French) * Jennifer Philippa Eggert, ''Female Fighters and Militants During the Lebanese Civil War: Individual Profiles, Pathways, and Motivations'', Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, 2018. �

* John C. Rolland (ed.), ''Lebanon: Current Issues and Background'', Nova Science Publishers, Hauppauge, New York 2003. �

* John Laffin, ''The War of Desperation: Lebanon 1982-85'', Osprey Publishing Ltd, London 1985. * Joseph Hokayem, ''L'armée libanaise pendant la guerre: un instrument du pouvoir du président de la République (1975–1985)'', Lulu.com, Beyrouth 2012. , 1291036601 (in French) �

* Ken Guest, ''Lebanon'', in ''Flashpoint! At the Front Line of Today's Wars'', Arms and Armour Press, London 1994, pp. 97–111. * Leigh Neville, ''Technicals: Non-Standard Tactical Vehicles from the Great Toyota War to modern Special Forces'', New Vanguard series 257, Osprey Publishing Ltd, Oxford 2018. * Leroy Thompson, ''The G3 Battle Rifle'', Weapon series 68, Osprey Publishing Ltd, Oxford 2019. * Makram Rabah, ''Conflict on Mount Lebanon: The Druze, the Maronites and Collective Memory'', Alternative Histories, Edinburgh University Press, 2020 (1st edition). * Matthew Hinson, ''Crimes on Sacred Ground: Massacres, Desecration, and Iconoclasm in Lebanon's Mountain War 1983-1984'', Honors Thesis Submitted to the Department of History, Georgetown University, 8 May 2017. �

* Moustafa El-Assad, ''Civil Wars Volume 1: The Gun Trucks'', Blue Steel books, Sidon 2008. * Naomi Joy Weinberger, ''Syrian Intervention in Lebanon: The 1975–76 Civil War'', Oxford University Press, Oxford 1986. , 0195040104 *

Odd Karsten Tveit Odd Karsten Tveit (born 17 December 1945) is a Norwegian journalist, writer and economist. His speciality is the Middle East, a subject on which he has written several books. Tveit has been a foreign correspondent for the Norwegian Broadcasting ...

, ''Goodbye Lebanon. Israel's First Defeat.'', Translated by Peter Scott-Hansen, Rimal Publication, 2010. * Oren Barak, ''The Lebanese Army: A National Institution in a Divided Society'', State University of New York Press, Albany 2009. �

* Paul Jureidini, R. D. McLaurin, and James Price, ''Military Operations in Selected Lebanese Built-Up Areas, 1975–1978'', Aberdeen, MD: U.S. Army Human Engineering Laboratory, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Technical Memorandum 11-79, June 1979. * Philipe Naud, ''La Guerre Civile Libanaise – 1re partie: 1975–1978'', Steelmasters Magazine, August–September 2012, pp. 8–16. (in French) * Rex Brynen, ''Sanctuary and Survival: the PLO in Lebanon'', Boulder: Westview Press, Oxford 1990. �

* Riyaḍ Taqi al-Din, ''Al-Tajribah al-ʿAskarīyah al-Durzīyah wa-Masāruhā al-Taqaddumī'', [n. p.], Beirut 1987. (in

) *Robert Fisk, ''Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War'', London: Oxford University Press, (3rd ed. 2001). �

* Samer Kassis, ''30 Years of Military Vehicles in Lebanon'', Beirut: Elite Group, 2003. * Samer Kassis, ''Véhicules Militaires au Liban/Military Vehicles in Lebanon 1975–1981'', Trebia Publishing, Chyah 2012. * Samer Kassis, ''Invasion of Lebanon 1982'', Abteilung 502, 2019. �

* Samuel M. Katz, Lee E. Russel & Ron Volstad, ''Armies in Lebanon 1982–84'', Men-at-Arms series 165, Osprey Publishing Ltd, London 1985. * Samuel M. Katz & Ron Volstad, ''Arab Armies of the Middle East Wars (2)'', Men-at-Arms series 194, Osprey Publishing Ltd, London 1988. * Samir Makdisi and Richard Sadaka, ''The Lebanese Civil War, 1975–1990'', American University of Beirut, Institute of Financial Economics, Lecture and Working Paper Series (2003 No.3), pp. 1–53. �

* Steven J. Zaloga, ''Tank Battles of the Mid-East Wars (2): The Wars of 1973 to the Present'', Concord Publications, Hong Kong 2003. �

* Thomas Collelo (ed.), ''Lebanon: A Country Study'', Library of Congress, Federal Research Division, Headquarters, Department of the Army (DA Pam 550-24), Washington D.C., December 1987 (Third edition 1989). �

* Tim Llewellyn, ''Spirit of the Phoenix: Beirut and the Story of Lebanon'', I.B. Tauris, London 2010. �

* Tony Badran (Barry Rubin ed.), ''Lebanon: Liberation, Conflict, and Crisis'', Palgrave Macmillan, London 2010. * Walid Khalidi, ''Conflict and Violence in Lebanon: Confrontation in the Middle East'', fourth printing (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Studies in International Affairs, 1984). * Yann Mahé, ''La Guerre Civile Libanaise, un chaos indescriptible! (1975–1990)'', Trucks & Tanks Magazine n.º41, January–February 2014, pp. 78–81. (in French) *Zachary Sex & Bassel Abi-Chahine, ''Modern Conflicts 2 – The Lebanese Civil War, From 1975 to 1991 and Beyond'', Modern Conflicts Profile Guide Volume II, AK Interactive, 2021. ISBN 8435568306073

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)
PLA camouflage patterns

PLA vehicles in the Lebanese civil war

Progressive Socialist Party official site
(in

)
PSP al-Anba'a official newspaper site
(in

)
War Hotels: How Beirut's Commodore Hotel became a safe haven for world media (Aljazeera English documentary)
Factions in the Lebanese Civil War Military wings of political parties Lebanese National Movement Progressive Socialist Party Druze in Lebanon History of the Druze

Emblem

Origins

Military structure and organization

Field organization

Branches of service

Elite units

Military facilities

List of PLA Commanders

PLA Junior Commanders

Weapons and equipment

Small-arms

Armoured and transport vehicles

Artillery

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Controversy

The PLA in the Lebanese Civil War

The early phase 1975–1982

The Mountain War 1983–84

The War of the Camps 1985–87

The later years 1988–1990

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Uniforms and insignia

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See also

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References

Further reading

External links