The Popular Nasserist Organization – PNO ( ar, التنظيم الشعبي الناصري, translit=Al-Tanzim al-Sha'aby al-Nassery) or Organisation Populaire Nassérienne (OPN) in

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

, is a

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. ...

-based

Nasserist Nasserism ( ) is an Arab nationalist and Arab socialist political ideology based on the thinking of Gamal Abdel Nasser, one of the two principal leaders of the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, and Egypt's second President. Spanning the domestic a ...

party originally formed in 1973 by

Maarouf Saad Maarouf Saad ( ar, معروف سعد) (1910. Maarouf Saad Cultural Center. or 1914–6 March 1975) was a Lebanese politician and activist. He served as Sidon's representative in the Parliament of Lebanon between 1957 and 1972. He founded the P ...

, a

Sunni Muslim 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 disagree ...

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 ...

politician and member of Parliament (MP) later killed by 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 ...

during a February 1975 dock strike held in that port city.

Structure and organization

The PNO's military wing, the National Liberation Army – NLA ( ar, جيش التحرير الوطني, translit=Jayish al-Tahrir al-Watani, links=no) or Armée de Liberation Nationale (ALN) in

, was first raised in March 1975 at Sidon by

Mustafa Saad Mustafa ( ar, مصطفى , Muṣṭafā) is one of the names of Prophet Muhammad, and the name means "chosen, selected, appointed, preferred", used as an Arabic given name and surname. Mustafa is a common name in the Muslim world. Given name Mo ...

, son of the late Maarouf. Secretly trained and armed by

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 ...

, the NLA was initially financed by

Yasser Arafat Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf al-Qudwa al-Husseini (4 / 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), popularly known as Yasser Arafat ( , ; ar, محمد ياسر عبد الرحمن عبد الرؤوف عرفات القدوة الحسيني, Mu ...

's organization and

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 ...

, later replaced in the mid-1980s by the Sidon-born Saudi-Lebanese millionaire

Rafic Hariri Rafic Bahaa El Deen Al Hariri ( ar, رفيق بهاء الدين الحريري; 1 November 1944 – 14 February 2005) was a Lebanese business tycoon and politician who served as the Prime Minister of Lebanon from 1992 to 1998 and again from ...

, in order to protect his business interests in the Sidon area. A small but disciplinated fighting force, predominately

with some

Shia Muslims 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 ...

and

Christians 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 ...

, the NLA comprised some 500-1,000 uniformed male and female fighters organized into conventional '

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 ...

Infantry Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and marine i ...

Signals In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...

, and

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 ...

branches. It fielded a 'mechanized' corps provided with a single UR-416 armoured car seized from the

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 ...

in 1985, plus 40

all-terrain vehicles An all-terrain vehicle (ATV), also known as a light utility vehicle (LUV), a quad bike, or simply a quad, as defined by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI); is a vehicle that travels on low-pressure tires, with a seat that is stra ...

converted into

technical Technical may refer to: * Technical (vehicle), an improvised fighting vehicle * Technical analysis, a discipline for forecasting the future direction of prices through the study of past market data * Technical drawing, showing how something is co ...

s. The latter consisted mostly of Suzuki Jimny LJ20 1st generation

off-road Off-roading is the activity of driving or riding in a vehicle on unpaved surfaces such as sand, gravel, riverbeds, mud, snow, rocks, and other natural terrain. Types of off-roading range in intensity, from leisure drives with unmodified vehicl ...

mini SUV A sport utility vehicle (SUV) is a car classification that combines elements of road-going passenger cars with features from off-road vehicles, such as raised ground clearance and four-wheel drive. There is no commonly agreed-upon definitio ...

s, Land-Rover series II-III, Toyota Land Cruiser (J43),

Toyota Land Cruiser (J70) The 70 Series is a family of Toyota Land Cruiser models produced since 1984. It replaced the 25-year-old 40 Series as the off-road model of the Land Cruiser lineup, while the contemporary 60 Series developed into more comfortable luxury SUVs st ...

, Toyota Land Cruiser (J75), GMC Sierra Custom K25/K30, Datsun 620 and Datsun 720 pickup trucks, and Dodge Fargo/Power Wagon W200 light trucks armed with

heavy machine-gun 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 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 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, ...

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 ...

The PNO in the Civil War: 1975–90

Closely allied with the

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 ...

, the PNO/NLA joined 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) in April 1975, playing a somewhat significant role in the controversial siege of the

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 ...

coastal town of

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 ...

alongside the Al-Mourabitoun, the PLO and

Palestine Liberation Army The Palestine Liberation Army (PLA, ar, جيش التحرير الفلسطيني, ''Jaysh at-Tahrir al-Filastini'') is ostensibly the military wing of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), set up at the 1964 Arab League summit held in A ...

units on 20–22 January 1976, and later took part in the 'Spring offensive' held in March that year on the

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 ...

region. Forced to go underground during the June 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon when the

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

(IDF) occupied Sidon, the PNO/NLA re-formed in the wake of the Israeli pull-out from southern Lebanon in March–April 1985, and fought alongside the

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

at the battles for Kfar-Fallus and

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 ...

against the Israeli-backed

South Lebanese 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). Simultaneously, during 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 ...

they joined in a Syrian-backed coalition with the

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), 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 ...

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 and Sidon.O'Ballance, ''Civil War in Lebanon'' (1998), p. 156.

The post-war years

The PNO is led today by Osama Saad, who is an MP in the

Lebanese Parliament The Lebanese Parliament ( ar, مجلس النواب, translit=Majlis an-Nuwwab; french: Chambre des députés) is the national parliament of the Republic of Lebanon. There are 128 members elected to a four-year term in multi-member constit ...

, and is active in the city of

. It was affiliated with the

March 8 Alliance The March 8 Alliance ( ar, تحالف 8 آذار, taḥāluf 8 adhār}) is a coalition of political parties and independents in Lebanon formed in 2005 that are united by their pro-Syrian stance and their opposition to the March 14 Alliance. It ...

until the 2019 protests in Lebanon, which the party supports.

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.

*Boutros Labaki & Khalil Abou Rjeily, ''Bilan des guerres du Liban (1975-1990)'', Collection "Comprendre le Moyen-Orient", Éditions L'Harmattan, Paris 1993. (in

) *Denise Ammoun, ''Histoire du Liban contemporain: Tome 2 1943-1990'', Fayard, Paris 2005. (in

) �

*

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 inter ...

, ''Civil War in Lebanon, 1975-92'', Palgrave Macmillan, London 1998. *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

) �

*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

) �

*Marius Deeb, ''The Lebanese Civil War'', Praeger Publishers Inc., New York 1980. *Moustafa El-Assad, ''Civil Wars Volume 1: The Gun Trucks'', Blue Steel books, Sidon 2008. *

Mordechai Nisan Mordechai Nisan is an Israeli professor, member of the World Zionist Organization, and scholar of Middle East Studies at the Rothberg International School of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His most recent book, Only Israel West of the River: T ...

, ''The Conscience of Lebanon: A Political Biography of Etienne Sakr (Abu-Arz)'', Frank Cass Publishers, London 2003. * Rex Brynen, ''Sanctuary and Survival: the PLO in Lebanon'', Boulder: Westview Press, Oxford 1990. �

*

Robert Fisk Robert Fisk (12 July 194630 October 2020) was a writer and journalist who held British and Irish citizenship. He was critical of United States foreign policy in the Middle East, and the Israeli government's treatment of Palestinians. His stanc ...

, ''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. *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. �

Structure and organization

The PNO in the Civil War: 1975–90

The post-war years

See also

Notes

References

Further reading