The Lebanese Arab Army – LAA (), also known variously as the Arab Army of Lebanon (AAL) and Arab Lebanese Army (ALA), Army of Arab Lebanon or Armée arabe du Liban (AAL) in French, was a predominantly Muslim splinter faction of the Lebanese Army that came to play a key role in the 1975–77 phase of the Lebanese Civil War.
Emblem
Upon its creation in January 1976, the LAA adopted as emblem a badge featuring an eagle with folded wings and a Lebanese Cedar tree at the centre, holding a scroll on its claws below, which portrayed the Militant group's ideology. The eagle itself symbolised Pan-Arabism, whilst the Cedar tree represented Lebanon, and the trunk of the tree featured "Lebanon" written in Arabic script. In the scroll at the bottom was depicted a quote in Arabic that translates as "My Arabism will prevail."
The motto "Lebanese Arab Army" written in Arabic script was often hastily painted or sprayed by LAA troops on the hull and turret of their armoured cars and tanks, and on the body of their transport vehicles.Kassis, 30 Years of Military Vehicles in Lebanon (2003), pp. 6; 23."Mig" Jimenez & Lopez, M41 Bulldog au Liban, Steelmasters Magazine (2005), pp. 18–22.Naud, La Guerre Civile Libanaise – 1re partie: 1975–1978, Steelmasters Magazine (2012), pp. 10-11.Kassis, Véhicules Militaires au Liban/Military Vehicles in Lebanon (2012), pp. 38-39; 49-51; 53.Sex & Abi-Chahine, Modern Conflicts 2 – The Lebanese Civil War, From 1975 to 1991 and Beyond (2021), p. 215.
Origins On 21 January 1976 at the Elias Abou Sleiman Barracks in Ablah, Zahlé District, in the Beqaa Valley, 900 Lebanese Muslim soldiers serving with the 1st Armoured Brigade (a.k.a. the "First Brigade") refused to fight against their coreligionists of the Lebanese National Movement (LNM) and mutinied under the leadership of Lieutenant Ahmed Al-Khatib, a Tank officer who originally commanded a 40 men-strong armored company in Rashaya, and urged his fellow Muslims to desert.El-Khazen, The Breakdown of the State in Lebanon (2000), p. 333.Barak, The Lebanese Army – A National institution in a divided society (2009), p. 100.Hokayem, L'armée libanaise pendant la guerre: un instrument du pouvoir du président de la République (1975-1985) (2012), p. 22. The mutiny quickly spread to other Army barracks and garrisons on the southern part of the Beqaa and the Jabal Amel – including the strategic Beaufort Castle, Rashaya, Aramoun, Marjayoun, Khiam, Nabatieh and SidonJureidini, McLaurin, and Price, Military operations in selected Lebanese built-up areas (1979), Appendix B, B-16, B-17.El-Khazen, The Breakdown of the State in Lebanon (2000), p. 333.Hokayem, L'armée libanaise pendant la guerre: un instrument du pouvoir du président de la République (1975-1985) (2012), p. 30. – and within a month, Lt. Khatib had rallied to his cause some 2,000-3,000 soldiers from the First Brigade,McGowan, Roberts, Abu Khalil, and Scott Mason, Lebanon: a country study (1989), p. 242.Collelo, Lebanon: a country study (1989), p. 239. well-equipped with heavy weapons (including tanks and artillery).O'Ballance, Civil War in Lebanon (1998), pp. 44-45.Hokayem, L'armée libanaise pendant la guerre: un instrument du pouvoir du président de la République (1975-1985) (2012), pp. 29-30. They became the core of the new Lebanese Arab Army (LAA), formally established on 31 January, who promptly went to the side of the LNM – Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) alliance fighting the Christian-rightist Lebanese Front militias on the ongoing Lebanese Civil War,Barak, The Lebanese Army – A National institution in a divided society (2009), p. 104. and on 3 February the LAA published its Manifesto which promoted a political program centered on the Arabism of Lebanon, Democratization and secularization.René Chamussy – Chronique d'une guerre, le Liban (1975-1977)Kechichian, The Lebanese Army: Capabilities and Challenges in the 1980s (1985), p. 20.Rabinovich, The war for Lebanon (1989), p. 72.
On the surface, Khatib's rebellion seemed a spontaneous act that reflected Muslim discontent within the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) against their predominantly Christian leadership.El-Khazen, The Breakdown of the State in Lebanon (2000), p. 334.Hokayem, L'armée libanaise pendant la guerre: un instrument du pouvoir du président de la République (1975-1985) (2012), pp. 22-23. The reality, however, was more complex. In fact, the mutiny had been secretly orchestrated by Fatah, the main Palestinian faction and had well-defined objectives. Fatah leaders – notably Yasser Arafat, Abu Iyad, Abu Jihad and Ali Hassan Salameh – had always regarded the Lebanese Army as a potential military threat to the PLO, a threat neutralized by the formation of the LAA.El-Khazen, The Breakdown of the State in Lebanon (2000), p. 334.Menargues, Les Secrets de la guerre du Liban (2004), p. 31.Barak, The Lebanese Army – A National institution in a divided society (2009), p. 100. Moreover, Lt. Khatib was a pro-Palestinian Sunni Muslim dissident supported by the Rejectionist Front and Libya, and was himself ideologically aligned with the Lebanese Nasserist Al-Mourabitoun movement led by Ibrahim Kulaylat, the Arab Socialist Union (ASU) led by Abd al-Rahim Mrad and the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) headed by Kamal Jumblatt.Barak, The Lebanese Army – A National institution in a divided society (2009), p. 101.Hokayem, L'armée libanaise pendant la guerre: un instrument du pouvoir du président de la République (1975-1985) (2012), p. 23.
Structure and organization Headquartered at Hasbaya Barracks in the Beqaa Valley,El-Khazen, The Breakdown of the State in Lebanon (2000), p. 333. the LAA numbered at its peak some 4,400 uniformed regulars (though other sources list a total of just 2,000).Makdisi and Sadaka, The Lebanese Civil War, 1975-1990 (2003), p. 44, Table 1: War Period Militias.Hokayem, L'armée libanaise pendant la guerre: un instrument du pouvoir du président de la République (1975-1985) (2012), pp. 23-24. The confessional identity of the soldiers was mostly Muslim, consisting of Shia Muslims from Southern Lebanon and Baalbek-Hermel, Sunni Muslims from the North, and Druzes from the Chouf.Barak, The Lebanese Army – A National institution in a divided society (2009), p. 104. This total later included a small number of Syrian military officers sympathetic to the cause of the LNM-PLO alliance, who had defected from Syrian Arab Deterrent Force (ADF) units stationed in Lebanon after June 1976.
At the zenith of its power in March 1976, the LAA controlled three-quarters of all army barracks and posts in Lebanon,Collelo, Lebanon: a country study (1989), p. 242. comprising the Elias Abou Sleiman Barracks at Ablah, the Sheikh Abdullah Barracks at Baalbek, the Rashaya Citadel at Rashaya, the Hanna Ghostine Barracks at Aramayn, the Saïd el-Khateeb Barracks at Hammana, the Bahjat Ghanem Barracks and Youssef Halayel Barracks at Tripoli, the Mohamed Zogheib Barracks at Sidon, and the Adloun and Benoit Barakat Barracks at Tyre.Hokayem, L'armée libanaise pendant la guerre: un instrument du pouvoir du président de la République (1975-1985) (2012), p. 24. At West Beirut, LAA troops controlled the Emil Helou Barracks, the Emir Bachir Barracks, the Emir Fakhreddine Barracks and the Henri Chihab Barracks, plus the Lebanese Army High Center for Military Sport in Haret Hreik, the Military Beach Club (French: Bain Militaire) in Ras Beirut and the Grand Serail.Hokayem, L'armée libanaise pendant la guerre: un instrument du pouvoir du président de la République (1975-1985) (2012), pp. 24; 29. Outside the Lebanese Capital, they also controlled the Kleyate Air Base in the northern Akkar District and the strategic Masnaa Border Crossing, situated on the Beirut-Aley-Damascus highway.
Being Pan-Arabist and radical secularist in orientation, the LAA received financial and material assistance from Fatah, Iraq and Libya.Fisk, Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War (2001), pp. 36-39; 115-118; 126-127; 131-135; 211; 255; 458-461; 550-551; 580-581; 608; 617.
People's Republic of Tyre
The LAA was also involved in January 1976 in the founding of the so-called People's Republic of Tyre (| Jumhūriyya Ṣūr al-Ša'biyya), a short-lived autonomous Canton formed that same month at the port city of Tyre in Southern Lebanon.Fisk, Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War (2001), pp. 115-118. With the active support of their Arab Socialist Action Party – Lebanon (ASAP–L)Shanahan, The Shi'a of Lebanon – The Shi'a of Lebanon Clans, Parties and Clerics (2005), pp. 42–43; 46; 57; 62–63; 67–69; 77; 79–80; 94; 104; 149. and LAA allies,Goria, Sovereignty and Leadership in Lebanon, 1943–76 (1985), pp. 90; 179; 222. local Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) commanders took over the municipal government of the city, proclaimed the "People's Republic of Tyre", occupied the Lebanese Army's Adloun and Benoit Barakat Barracks, set up roadblocks and started collecting customs at the port.Schiff and Ya'ari, Israel's Lebanon War (1985), pp. 79-80; 139. However, the joint PLO-LAA "People's Republic of Tyre" government quickly lost the political support of the local population,Who's Who in Lebanon 2007–2008 (2007), pp. 49; 84; 88; 196; 391-392; 398-399; 416-417. mostly due to their "arbitrary and often brutal behavior".Schiff and Ya'ari, Israel's Lebanon War (1985), pp. 79-80; 139.
List of LAA commanders
Lieutenant Ahmad al-Khatib (LAA commander-in-chief), Sunni Major Ahmed Boutari, SunniEl-Khazen, The Breakdown of the State in Lebanon (2000), p. 333. Major Ahmad Ma'amari (Northern Lebanon LAA commander), SunniEl-Khazen, The Breakdown of the State in Lebanon (2000), p. 333. Lieutenant Amine Kassem (Baalbek LAA commander), Shiite 2nd Lieutenant Bassam al-Idilbi (LAA Chief of Operations), Sunni Captain Ghazi Ghotaymi, Shiite Major Hussein Awwad (LAA artillery corps' commander), Shiite Major Ibrahim Chahine, Shiite Lieutenant Mou'in Hatoum, Shiite Lieutenant Omar Abdallah, Sunni Lieutenant colonel Youssif Mansour, Shiite Mustafa Hamdan
The LAA in the Lebanese Civil War 1976-77 Closely allied with the Muslim-leftist Lebanese National Movement (LNM) militias and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) guerrilla factions, the LAA battled the Christian-rightist militias of the Lebanese Front and the Army of Free Lebanon (AFL) at Beirut, but also fought at the Beqaa Valley, and the districts of northern and southern Lebanon.Jureidini, McLaurin, and Price, Military operations in selected Lebanese built-up areas (1979), Appendix B, B-16.O'Ballance, Civil War in Lebanon (1998), p. 45.Menargues, Les Secrets de la guerre du Liban (2004), p. 37.Hokayem, L'armée libanaise pendant la guerre: un instrument du pouvoir du président de la République (1975-1985) (2012), p. 23.
Between January–March 1976, during the episode known as the "War of the Barracks", Lt. Khatib and his rebellious soldiers managed to seize parts of the Beqaa and south Lebanon regions, and the northern port city of Tripoli, all areas with a clear Muslim majority. Lt. Khatib later claimed that his LAA faction controlled over 80 percent of Lebanon's territory and was just 10 km away from Jounieh, the unofficial "Capital" of the Marounistan, an enclave created by the predominately Maronite Christian Lebanese Front militias in late 1976.Barak, The Lebanese Army – A National institution in a divided society (2009), pp. 100-101.
On 14 January 1976, the LAA, allied with the PLO-LNM joint forces militias, unsuccessfully besieged the Greek Catholic town of Zahlé in the Beqaa Valley, then held by the Zahliote Group, a local Christian militia, in retaliation for the fall of the Palestinian refugee camp of Dbayeh in the hands of the Lebanese Front's Christian militias earlier that same day.Hokayem, L'armée libanaise pendant la guerre: un instrument du pouvoir du président de la République (1975-1985) (2012), p. 21.