Amal militia
The Shiite Amal militia ( French milice Amal , Arabic أفواج المقاومة اللبنانية, DMG Afwāǧ al-muqāwama al-lubnāniyya 'Battalions of the Lebanese Resistance', German also "Amal Movement" ) in Lebanon was the armed arm of the socially conservative and Shiite- populist Amal movement , which is still in existence today, under the chairmanship of Nabih Berri (since 1981).أمل / Amal can generally be translated as “hope”, but it is also an acronym for the Arabic name.
history
Lebanese civil war
The Amal militia was founded in 1975 after the outbreak of the first phase of the Lebanese civil war by the Shiite imam Musa as-Sadr , who disappeared under mysterious circumstances in Libya in August 1978 . The relationship between the Amal and Libya's revolutionary leader Muammar al-Gaddafi has remained tense since then.
The Amal movement and its militia are primarily recruiting in southern Lebanon and in southern Beirut . When the PLO withdrew from West Beirut, forced by the Israeli invasion in 1982 , the Palestinians handed over their heavy weapons to the Amal militia. This gained a preponderance over the rival, emerging Shiite Hezbollah . Above all, the Iranian Revolution in 1978 and not least the Israeli invasion of 1982 led to religious radicalization. This resulted in an Islamic split from AMAL, which joined Hezbollah.
An alliance with the Druze PSP from 1983 broke up in 1986. Under its new pro-Syrian leader Nabih Berri, the relationship with the predominantly Sunni PLO also changed and open fighting broke out. The PLO then concluded alliances with Hezbollah against the Amal.
The climax of the conflicts were the years 1986-88. Surprisingly, the barely 700-strong militia of the Lebanese Communist Party attacked the then 12-20,000-strong Amal militia in West Beirut. The 6,000 militia of the Druze leader Walid Jumblat came to the aid of the Communists, who initially had no chance . In bitter street fights, the Amal quickly lost almost all of West Beirut. Their defeat was averted in 1987 when Syrian troops marched into the Lebanese capital.
With Syrian help, the Amal tried to win back not only West Beirut, but also South Beirut. Their attack on Hezbollah failed; In return, Hezbollah and its allies conquered almost 90% of southern Beirut in 1988, before Syrian troops intervened there to enforce a ceasefire, which was monitored by the "Shiite Brigade" of the Lebanese army under General Jabr Lofti .
The two large Shiite militias (AMAL and Hezbollah) concentrated their forces together against the Israeli occupation in the spring of 1984. By 1985, the Israel Defense Forces lost 600 soldiers. The IDF then withdrew to southern Lebanon. At the same time, after being expelled as a result of the Israeli invasion, the PLO began again to expand its activities in the camps. This led to a conflict with the Syrian-sponsored AMAL militia. This conflict, which lasted from 1985 to 1987, is known as the War of the Camps . In August 1987, the conflict between the Palestinians and the AMAL militia ( AMAL-PLO conflict ) escalated . The struggle for the PLO-dominated camps Ain al-Hilweh , Mieh Mieh and Sabra and Shatila developed particularly dramatically . Like the Phalangists , the Amal attacked or blocked the camps several times in the course of their battles against the PLO. During their siege of Shatila, the Amal starved and thirsted for months with the approval of the Syrians; Syrian troops stationed just a kilometer away did not intervene. On January 16, 1988, the AMAL ended the blockades on the three Palestinian camps of Shatila, Bourj el-Barajneh and Rashidieh in a gesture of goodwill by Nabih Berri . Above all, this was intended to strengthen the First Intifada , which began in December 1987.
After the civil war
After the end of the civil war in 1991, the Amal gave up their weapons to the Syrians and reconciled with Hezbollah . Since then, both have formed joint electoral lists that have secured Nabih Berri the post of President of Parliament several times since 1992 .
In September 1997, 12 Israeli soldiers died in a chain between an explosives accident and an attack by fighters from the AMAL, Hezbollah and Lebanese army.
Footnotes
- ↑ James A. Reilly: Israel in Lebanon, 1975-82, pp. 14-20, in: MERIP Reports, No. 108/109, The Lebanon War (Sep - Oct 1982), p. 18
- ↑ Gilbert Achcar and Michael Warschawski: The 33-day war - Israel's war against Hezbollah in Lebanon and its consequences, Hamburg 2006, p. 24
- ↑ Simon Murden: Understanding Israel's Long Conflict in Lebanon: The Search for an Alternative Approach to Security during the Peace Process, pp. 25-47, in: British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 27, No. 1 (May, 2000), p. 34
- ↑ Simon Haddad: The Origins of Popular Opposition to Palestinian Resettlement in Lebanon, pp. 470-492, in: S. International Migration Review, Vol. 38, No. 2 (Summer, 2004), 476
- ↑ Edgar O'Ballance: Civil War in Lebanon, 1975-92, Hampshire 1998, p 180
- ↑ Edgar O'Ballance: Civil War in Lebanon, 1975-92, Hampshire 1998, p. 181
- ↑ Simon Murden: Understanding Israel's Long Conflict in Lebanon: The Search for an Alternative Approach to Security during the Peace Process, pp. 25-47, in: British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 27, No. 1 (May, 2000), p. 40