Tigers Militia
| Tigers Militia نمور الأحرار |
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|---|---|
| Participant in Lebanese civil war (1975-1990) | |
NLP Tigers Militia logo (1968-1980)
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| Active | Until 1980 |
| Groups | Lebanese Front, Lebanese Forces |
| Leaders | Naim Berdkan, Dany Chamoun, Dory Chamoun |
| Headquarters | Sodeco (Achrafieh – Beirut), Safra |
| Strength | 3,500 fighters |
| Originated as | 500 fighters |
| Allies | Lebanese Army, Israel Defense Forces (IDF), South Lebanon Army (SLA), Guardians of the Cedars (GoC), Army of Free Lebanon (AFL), Al-Tanzim, Kataeb Regulatory Forces (KRF), Tyous Team of Commandos (TTC), Lebanese Forces |
| Opponents | Lebanese National Movement (LNM), Lebanese Arab Army (LAA), Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Syrian Army, Amal Movement, Al-Mourabitoun, Lebanese Forces |
The Tigers Militia (Arabic: نمور الأحرار, transliterated: Numūr or Al-Noumour), also known as NLP Tigers or Tigers of the Liberals (Arabic: Numur al-Ahrar) and PNL "Lionceaux" in French, was the military wing of the National Liberal Party (NLP) during the Lebanese Civil War.
The NLP militia was first raised in October 1968 by Camille Chamoun at his own home town of Es-Sa'adiyat, originally under the title Brigade of the Lebanese Tigers – BLT (Arabic: Katibat al-Numur al-Lubnaniyya) or Brigade des Lionceaux Libanais (BLL) in French, allegedly taken from his middle name, Nimr – meaning "Tiger" in Arabic. Initially just 500-men strong, the BLT was organized, trained, and led by the 'defence secretary' of the NLP Naim Berdkan; after his death in action in January 1976, he was succeeded by Dany Chamoun, Camille Chamoun's younger son.
Allocated at first in the NLP party offices' at the neighborhood of Sodeco in the Achrafieh quarter of Beirut, the Tigers' military HQ was relocated in 1978 to Safra, a boat marina and tourist beach resort located 25 km north of the Lebanese capital in the Keserwan District, where it remained until the militia's dissolution.
Under the command of Dany Chamoun, the Tigers had become by 1978 the second largest militia force in the Christian Lebanese Front, and although the Chamouns never achieved with their militia the same level of organizational efficiency displayed by the rival Phalange' Kataeb Regulatory Forces militia, they were nonetheless capable of aligning 3,500 men and women, though other sources list a total of 4,000, which included civilian recruits and deserters from the Lebanese Army. Its 500 full-time fighters and 3,000 part-time reservists were organized into armoured, 'commando', infantry, artillery, signals, medical, logistics and military police branches. Their chain of command was predominantly Maronite, though the rank-and-file were drawn from the Maronite, Greek-Orthodox, Druze, and Shi'ite militants of the NLP and trained in-country at clandestine facilities; first set up by the NLP in 1966 these training centres were located at Naas in the Metn, Es-Saadiyat in the Iqlim al-Kharrub coastal enclave south of Beirut and at Adma in the northern mountainous Keserwan District.
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Wikipedia