Marada Brigade
| Marada Brigade/Zgharta Liberation Army (ZLA) | |
|---|---|
| Participant in Lebanese Civil War | |
Old flag of the Marada Brigade/ZLA (1967-1990).
|
|
| Active | Until 1991 |
| Groups | Lebanese Front, Lebanese National Movement (LNM), Lebanese National Salvation Front (LNSF) |
| Leaders | Tony Frangieh, Robert Frangieh, Suleiman Frangieh Jr. |
| Headquarters | Zgharta, Ehden |
| Strength | 2,400-3,500 fighters |
| Originated as | 700 men |
| Allies | Lebanese Army, Kataeb Regulatory Forces (KRF), Tigers Militia, Guardians of the Cedars (GoC), Army of Free Lebanon (AFL), Jammoul, Syrian Army |
| Opponents | Lebanese National Movement (LNM), Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Lebanese Arab Army (LAA), Lebanese Forces, Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Lebanese Army |
The Zgharta Liberation Army or Zghartawi Liberation Army - ZLA (in French: Armée de Liberation de Zgharta - ALZ) was the party militia of the Lebanese Marada Movement during the Lebanese Civil War. The militia was formed in 1967 on President Suleiman Frangieh's instructions as the Marada Brigade (also translated as Mardaite Brigade, in Arabic: Liwa' al-Marada) seven years before the war began. The force was initially commanded by Suleiman Franjieh's son, Tony Frangieh. It operated mainly out of Tripoli and Zgharta, but it also fought in Beirut. The ZLA fought against various Palestinian and Lebanese Muslim militias as well as the Lebanese Forces in Bcharre and Ehden.
The Marada's military wing was formed in 1967 and at the outbreak of the war in April 1975, they numbered just 700 men armed with obsolete firearms acquired in the black market. They first came to light on 17 August 1970 at Beirut, when Tony Frangieh forced his way into the Parliament House leading a group of armed militiamen in order to secure his father’s election to the Presidency – an illegal move that the Lebanese official authorities proved powerless to prevent.
The small ZLA entered the civil war only in July 1975, in response to a series of attacks in the Sunni Muslim-dominated northern port city of Tripoli on shops and offices owned by Christians from Zgharta by local Muslim militias. Thanks to the covert support provided by the Lebanese Army, by January 1976 the Frangieh-controlled militia ranks had swollen to 2,400 troops, a total comprising 800 full-time fighters and 1,500 irregulars. At its height in the late 1970s, the Al-Marada mustered some 3,500 men and women [1] equipped with small-arms drawn from LAF reserves and ISF police stations or supplied by Syria. Besides providing training, weapons and ammunition, the Lebanese Army also lent to the ZLA sophisticated mobile communications equipment.
...
Wikipedia