Popular Guard
| Popular Guard | |
|---|---|
| Participant in Lebanese civil war (1975–1990) | |
Lebanese Communist Party flag (1924-present).
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| Active | 1924-1990; briefly in 2006 |
| Groups |
Lebanese Communist Party Lebanese National Movement (LNM), Lebanese National Resistance Front (LNRF) |
| Leaders | George Hawi, Elias Atallah |
| Headquarters | Zarif (Beirut), Houla (Southern Lebanon) |
| Strength | 2,000 fighters |
| Originated as | 5,000 fighters |
| Allies | Lebanese National Resistance Front (LNSF), Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Syrian Social National Party (SSNP), Communist Action Organization in Lebanon (OCAL), Lebanese National Movement (LNM), Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), Syrian Army, Hezbollah |
| Opponents | Lebanese Forces, Tigers Militia, Kataeb Regulatory Forces (KRF), Guardians of the Cedars (GoC), Israel Defense Forces (IDF), South Lebanon Army (SLA), Amal Movement, Al-Mourabitoun, Sixth of February Movement, Islamic Unification Movement (IUM), Syrian Army |
The Popular Guard – PG or Popular Guards (Arabic: الحرس الشعبي | Al-Harass al-Sha'abiy), Garde Populaire (GP) in French was the military wing of the Lebanese Communist Party (LCP), which fought in the 1975-77 phase of the Lebanese Civil War and subsequent conflicts. The LCP and its militia were members of the Lebanese National Movement (LNM) and its successor, the Lebanese National Resistance Front (LNRF).
The LCP’s military wing was not only well-organized, but also one of the largest secular and non-sectarian militias in Lebanon. It was first founded unofficially during the 1958 civil war, fighting alongside the anti-government forces against the Lebanese Army and the allied Christian militias. Disbanded upon the conclusion of the war, in early 1969 the Party's Politburo decided to quietly raise a new militia force to help defend the border villages located in South Lebanon. The "Popular Guard" was officially established on January 6, 1970, in response to the occupation of Kfar Kila and Houla villages in the Jabal Amel region of southern Lebanon and the kidnapping of local villagers by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF).
Prior to the war, the Popular Guard militia initially received covert support from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), USSR, Syria, Iraq, Libya and from well-connected left-wing sympathizers in Jordan, and some Eastern Bloc Countries, such as East Germany. Furthermore, the LCP started sending its militamen to training camps in Jordan under the control of the Palestinian Fatah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Jordanian Communist Party (JCP). Moreover, the LCP's links with the Iraqi Communist Party (ICP) and the Syrian Communist Party (SCP) led them to forge close ties with the Ba'athist Iraqi and Syrian Governments to help train militants and purchase high-tech soviet arms.
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Wikipedia