Tigers Militia (Lebanon)

The Tigers (Arabic, "numūr", Al Noumour) was the military wing of the National Liberal Party (NLP) during the Lebanese Civil War.

The Tigers formed in Saadiyat in 1968, as the "katībatu-n-numūri-l-lubnāniya" (The Brigade of the Lebanese Tigers) under the leadership of Camille Chamoun. The group took its name from his middle name, "Nimr" - "Tiger". Trained by Naim Berdkan, the unit was led by Chamoun's son Dany Chamoun, and later changed its name into "numūru-l-aHrār" (Tigers of the Liberals/the Free نمور الأحرار).

After the Lebanese Civil War began in 1975, the Tigers, strong of 3,500 militiamen [http://www.cedarland.org/teams.html#liberal] fought the Lebanese National Movement (LNM) and its Palestinian allies. The group was active in a number of battles in Beirut, allied with the Phalange and the Guardians of the Cedars; it was involved in the Karantina and Tel al-Zaatar Massacres of Palestinian refugees.

In 1976, right-wing militias combined to form the Lebanese Forces (LF) as a military wing of the Lebanese Front. Power in the LF was soon apprehended by the dominant faction, the Kataeb Party's Phalange militia under Bachir Gemayel. Soon relations spoil between the two factions, and on July 7 1980, in what will be called as Safra massacre, LF units made a surprise all-out attack against its positions. The Tigers suffered many casualties and were destroyed as a fighting force. Gemayel was intent on establishing the LF, under his command, as the sole mainly Christian militia. Dany Chamoun fled to Syria, and later resettled in West Beirut. He eventually returned to East Beirut, where he was assassinated in 1990.

The Free Tigers

The Free Tigers – FT ("Noumurs Al-Horr") was originally a 500-strong or so unit of the NLP Tigers commanded by Elias Hannache, which operated in the Ain el-Rammaneh sector of east Beirut until August 1980. Shotly after the forcible incorporation of the Tigers militia into the Lebanese Forces, Hannache broke with the NLP and promptly rebelled against the LF, who defeated and forced them out of Ain el-Rammaneh. Hannache and its men fled across the Green Line into the Muslim-controlled western sector of the Capital, placing themselves under the protection of the Palestinian Fatah intelligence service before moving to Zahle in October 1980, where they merged with the NLP Tigers’ local element. In addition to PLO backing, the Free Tigers also received some support from Syria until 1981, thought they seemed to have taken sides with the LF Commando force sent to defend Zahle in that same year, but very little was heard from them afterwards.

References

* Denise Ammoun, "Histoire du Liban contemporain : Tome 2 1943-1990", Fayard, Paris 2005. ISBN: 978-2213615219 (in French).
* Jean Sarkis, "Histoire de la guerre du Liban", Presses Universitaires de France - PUF, Paris 1993. ISBN: 978-2130458012 (in French).