Popular Guard

Origins

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 ostensibly to help defend the border villages located in South Lebanon. The reality, however, was more complex. Like other political groups in Lebanon, the LCP realized in the early 1970s that without an armed militia it would lose its political relevance. Thus the "Popular Guard" was officially established on January 6, 1970, ostensibly 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 Guards initially received covert support from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the 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 militiamen 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.

Military structure and organization

Initially made up of just 600–700 poorly armed militiamen, by mid-1976 the Popular Guard's ranks had swelled to some 5,000 men and women (though other sources list a smaller number, about 3,000), this total comprising 2,000–2,500 full-time fighters and 2,500–3,000 irregulars, mostly drawn from its youth branch organization, the Union of Lebanese Democratic Youth (ULDY), which had been established in early 1970. Organized into infantry, signals, artillery, medical and Military Police 'branches', the LCP militia was first headed by the Greek Orthodox George Hawi (whose nom de guerre was Abu Anis), but in 1979 PG command was passed on to Elias Atallah, a Maronite. Although it was active mostly in West Beirut and Tripoli, the LCP/PG also kept underground cells at the Koura District, and the Sidon, Tyre and Nabatieh Districts of the Jabal Amel region of southern Lebanon.

Illegal activities and controversy

The LCP/PG was mainly financed by the USSR and Syria, though it also received revenues from other 'unofficial' sources within Lebanon. In the mid-1980s, allied with the Red Knights militia of the Alawite Arab Democratic Party (ADP), they helped the latter to control Tripoli's commercial harbour and oil refinery – the second large deep-waters port of Lebanon – in collusion with the director of the city’s harbour Ahmad Karami and corrupt Syrian Army officers. The National Fuel Company (NFC) headed jointly by businessmen Maan Karami (brother of late prime-minister Rachid Karami) and Haj Muhammad Awadah, run in their behalf a profitable fuel smuggling ring that stretched to the Beqaa Valley.

The Popular Guards' in the 1975–1990 civil war

After the return of George Hawi, the Popular Guard joined the Lebanese National Movement (LNM) – PLO Joint Forces. The LCP militia was soon involved in many street battles against the Christian right-wing militias of the Lebanese Front. On October 24, 1975, the Popular Guards fought alongside other LNM militias such as the Al-Mourabitoun and the Nasserite Correctionist Mouvement (NCM), the Lebanese Arab Army (LAA) and the PLO at the Battle of the Hotels in Downtown Beirut, where they engaged the Lebanese Front militias and the Army of Free Lebanon (AFL).

Following the Israeli invasion of Lebanon of June 1982, the LCP/PG went underground, participating actively in the formation of the Lebanese National Resistance Front (LNRF) guerrilla alliance in September that year and later joining the LNSF in July 1983. They fought at the 1983–84 Mountain War allied with the Druze People's Liberation Army (PLA) of the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), Al-Mourabitoun and Syrian Socialist Nationalist Party (SSNP) militias in the Chouf District and at West Beirut against the Christian Lebanese Forces (LF) militia, the Lebanese Army and the Multinational Force in Lebanon (MNF).

When the War of the Camps broke out on April–May 1985 at West Beirut, it saw the LCP/PG participating – albeit reluctantly – in a military coalition that gathered the Druze PSP/PLA, and the Shia Muslim Amal Movement, backed by Syria, the Lebanese Army, and anti-Arafat dissident Palestinian guerrilla factions against an alliance of PLO refugee camp militias, the Nasserite Al-Mourabitoun and Sixth of February Movement militias, the Communist Action Organization in Lebanon (OCAL), and the Kurdish Democratic Party – Lebanon (KDP-L).

In December 1986, the Popular Guards joined the Arab Democratic Party (ADP), SSNP and Ba'ath Party militias in another military coalition backed by the Syrian Army, which contributed to the decisive defeat of the Sunni Muslim Islamic Unification Movement at the Battle of Tripoli.

Resistance to the Israeli occupation

On September 16, 1982, the Secretary-General of the LCP George Hawi and the Secretary-General of the OCAL Muhsin Ibrahim announced the creation of the LNRF, which rallied several Lebanese leftist and Pan-Arabist parties and armed factions to fight the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon.

Popular Guard underground guerrilla cells continued to operate in the Jabal Amel after the end of the civil war, fighting until 2000 alongside the Shia Hezbollah and other Lebanese armed groups against the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and their South Lebanese Army (SLA) proxies in the Israeli-controlled "security zone."

List of combat operations

• The 1958 civil war against right-wing Christian militias
• The Battle of the Hotels (Part of 2 years war) against the Lebanese Front
• The 1978 South Lebanon conflict against the Israeli Defence Forces
• The 1982 Lebanon War and Siege of Beirut against the Israeli Defence Forces, the Lebanese Forces, and the South Lebanon Army
• The Mountain War against the Lebanese Forces, the Lebanese Army and the Multinational Force in Lebanon
• The Battle of Tripoli against the Islamic Unification Movement and other radical Islamist factions
• The 2006 Lebanon War alongside Hezbollah and Amal movement against the Israeli Defence Forces

Weapons and equipment

The collapse of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and Internal Security Forces (ISF) in January 1976 allowed the LCP/PG to seize some weapons and vehicles from their barracks and police stations, though most of its weaponry, heavy vehicles and other, non-lethal military equipments were procured in the international black market or supplied by the PLO, Syria, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Romania and the USSR.

Pistols

• TT pistol
• Makarov pistol
• M1911A1 pistol
• CZ 75

Submachine guns

• Škorpion vz. 61
• MP 40

Carbines and Assault Rifles

• M1 Garand
• StG 44
• Mosin–Nagant
• MAS-49 rifle
• SKS
• AK-47 assault rifle (Other variants included the AKM, Zastava M70, AK-63, AK-74, AK-103, Chinese Type 56, Romanian AIM and former East German MPi assault rifles)
• FN FAL
• FN CAL
• Heckler & Koch G3
• M16A1

Machine guns and autocannons

• RPK Light machine gun
• RPD Light machine gun
• DP-28 Light machine gun
• SG-43 Goryunov
• PK General-purpose machine gun
• Type 67 General-purpose machine gun
• Rheinmetall MG 3 General-purpose machine gun
• M1919A4 General-purpose machine gun
• DShKM 12.7 mm Heavy machine gun (Mainly mounted on Technicals)
• NSV 12.7 mm Heavy machine gun taken off from disabled tanks (Mainly mounted on Technicals)
• KPV 14.5 mm Heavy machine gun (mounted on Technicals)
• ZPU (ZPU-1, ZPU-2, ZPU-4) 14.5 mm Anti-aircraft guns (Mainly mounted on Technicals and Gun trucks)

Sniper rifles

• Dragunov SVD-63 rifle
• PSL (rifle)
• Gepard anti-materiel rifles
• M40 rifle
• Steyr SSG 69
• PTRS-41 14.5mm anti-tank rifle (used for heavy sniping)

Rocket launchers and grenade systems

• RPG-7 shoulder-launched, anti-tank rocket-propelled grenade launcher
• RPG-2 shoulder-launched, anti-tank rocket-propelled grenade launcher
• Type 69 RPG shoulder-launched, anti-tank rocket-propelled grenade launcher
• F1 hand grenade
• RGD-5 hand grenade

Mortars

• M2 mortar

Artillery

• B-10 recoilless rifle
• M40 recoilless rifle (mounted on Technicals)
• 122 mm howitzer 2A18 (D-30)
• Type 63 multiple rocket launcher (mounted on Technicals)
• BM-21 Grad 122 mm multiple rocket launcher

Vehicles

• Jeep CJ-5 and CJ-8
• UAZ-469
• Land-Rover series II-III
• Range Rover (First generation) SUV
• Toyota Land Cruiser (J40)
• Peugeot 504 pickup truck
• GAZ-66 light truck
• Chevrolet C-50 medium-duty truck
• Dodge F600 medium-duty truck
• GMC C4500 medium-duty truck
• GMC C7500 heavy-duty cargo truck Many of these vehicles were employed as Technicals and Gun trucks, armed with DShkM, NSV, KPV, ZPU, ZU-23-2, and M40.

Uniforms and insignia

Fatigue clothing

Popular Guard militiamen wore in the field ex-Lebanese Army olive green fatigues (a special domestic variant of the US Army OG-107 cotton sateen utilities), locally produced PLO copies of Iraqi Army olive green and light khaki fatigues, and civilian clothes, or a mix of both. Camouflage uniforms were also worn, namely Syrian or PLO Lizard and Czechoslovakian Vz 60 "Salamander" (Mlok) patterns, and Lebanese Army Lizard-style pattern (colloquially nicknamed mlukhiyah, a.k.a. molokhia or molohiya) fatigues; the latter was a unique Lebanese-designed pattern which incorporated dense vertical stripes of dark brown and olive green on a pinkish-tan or khaki background. Originally developed in the late 1960s or early 1970s for the Lebanese Commando Regiment, this pattern saw widespread usage with the Christian-rightist Lebanese Front and Muslim-leftist Lebanese National Movement militias. Later in the War, Popular Guard fighters provided themselves with captured Lebanese Army U.S. Woodland BDUs or locally produced cheap copies. Civilian or surplus military Parkas, OG US M-1965 field jackets and Iraqi copies of the Pakistani Army olive-brown woollen pullover were worn in cold weather.

Headgear

Usual headgear consisted of ex-Lebanese Army OG Baseball caps, Soviet M-38 Field Hats in mustard khaki cotton (Russian: Panamanka), and black or red berets worn French-style, pulled to the left; a black-and-white or red-and-white kaffiyeh was also worn around the neck as a foulard. Fleece caps and Ushanka-style black or brown fur hats were worn in the winter.

Footwear

Black leather combat boots initially came from Lebanese Army stocks or were provided by the PLO and the Syrians, complemented by high-top Pataugas olive canvas-and-rubber patrol boots. Several models of civilian sneakers or "trainers" and "chucks", were also used by Popular Guard fighters.

Accoutrements

Web gear consisted of Soviet three-cell and four-cell AK-47 magazine pouches in khaki or olive green canvas, East German "raindrop" camouflage four-cell AK-47/AKM magazine pouches, ChiCom Type 56 AK, Type 56 SKS, Type 63 SKS and Type 81 AK chest rigs in khaki or olive green cotton fabric for the AK-47 assault rifle and the SKS semi-automatic rifle, plus several variants of locally made, multi-pocket chest rigs and assault vests in camouflage cloth, khaki and OG canvas or Nylon. In addition, the US Army M-1956 load-carrying equipment (LCE) in khaki cotton canvas and the all-purpose lightweight individual carrying equipment (ALICE) in OG Nylon captured from the Lebanese Army, and IDF olive green Nylon Ephod Combat Vests seized either from the Lebanese Forces (LF) or the South Lebanon Army (SLA) were also widely used. Anti-tank teams issued with the RPG-2 and RPG-7 rocket launchers received the correspondent Soviet rocket bag models in khaki canvas, the gunner backpack 6SH12, the assistant gunner backpack and the munitions bag 6SH11; Polish and East German versions in rubberized canvas were employed as well.

Insignia

Footnotes

References

• Afaf Sabeh McGowan, John Roberts, As'ad Abu Khalil, and Robert Scott Mason, Lebanon: a country study, area handbook series, Headquarters, Department of the Army (DA Pam 550-24), Washington D.C. 1989.
• Chris McNab, 20th Century Military Uniforms (2nd ed.), Grange Books, Kent 2002.
• Chris McNab, The SVD Dragunov Rifle, Weapon series 87, Osprey Publishing Ltd, Oxford 2023.
• CIA Lebanon report, Directory of Libanese Militias – A Reference Aid, NESA 84-10171C, June 1984, pp. 6–7. Declassified in Part – Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP85T00314R000100070001-4. – https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP85T00314R000100070001-4.pdf
• Edgar O'Ballance, Civil War in Lebanon 1975–92, Palgrave Macmillan, London 1998.
• Fawwaz Traboulsi, Identités et solidarités croisées dans les conflits du Liban contemporain; Chapitre 12: L'économie politique des milices: le phénomène mafieux, Thèse de Doctorat d'Histoire – 1993, Université de Paris VIII, 2007. (in French) – http://www.111101.net/Writings/Author/Fawwaz_Traboulsi/
• Itamar Rabinovich, The war for Lebanon, 1970–1985, Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London 1989 (revised edition).
• Jean Dunord, Liban: Les milices rendent leurs armes, RAIDS magazine No. 65, October 1991, Histoire & Collections, Paris. (in French)
• Jennifer Philippa Eggert, Female Fighters and Militants During the Lebanese Civil War: Individual Profiles, Pathways, and Motivations, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, 2018.
• Jennifer Philippa Eggert, Women and the Lebanese Civil War: Female Fighters in Lebanese and Palestinian Militias, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2022 (1st edition). , 3030837874
• Samir Makdisi and Richard Sadaka, The Lebanese Civil War, 1975–1990, American University of Beirut, Institute of Financial Economics, Lecture and Working Paper Series (2003 No.3), pp. 1–53.
• Tom Najem and Roy C. Amore, Historical Dictionary of Lebanon, Second Edition, Historical Dictionaries of Asia, Oceania, and the Middle East, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Lanham, Boulder, New York & London 2021. , 1538120437
• Paul Jureidini, R. D. McLaurin, and James Price, Military operations in selected Lebanese built-up areas, 1975–1978, Aberdeen, MD: U.S. Army Human Engineering Laboratory, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Technical Memorandum 11–79, June 1979.
• Yann Mahé, La Guerre Civile Libanaise, un chaos indescriptible (1975–1990), Trucks & Tanks Magazine No. 41, January–February 2014, Caraktère, Aix-en-Provence, pp. 78–81. (in French)

References

1. Rabinovich, ''The war for Lebanon'' (1989), pp. 78–79.
2. (2008-11-04). "منتديات ستار تايمز". Startimes.com.
3. Makdisi and Sadaka, ''The Lebanese Civil War, 1975–1990'' (2003), p. 44, Table 1: War Period Militias.
4. McGowan, Roberts, Abu Khalil, and Scott Mason, ''Lebanon: a country study'' (1989), p. 242.
5. Traboulsi, ''Identités et solidarités croisées dans les conflits du Liban contemporain; Chapitre 12: L'économie politique des milices: le phénomène mafieux'' (2007), parte III.
6. Stork, Joe. "[https://www.jstor.org/stable/3010810 The War of the Camps, The War of the Hostages]" in ''MERIP Reports'', No. 133. (June 1985), pp. 3–7, 22.
7. O'Ballance, ''Civil War in Lebanon'' (1998), p. 158.
8. O'Ballance, ''Civil War in Lebanon'' (1998), p. 171.
9. Herbert Docena. (17 August 2006). "Amid the bombs, unity is forged". [[Asia Times Online]].
10. Dunord, ''Liban: Les milices rendent leurs armes'', RAIDS Magazine (1991), p. 31.
11. Scarlata, Paul. (July 2009). "Military rifle cartridges of Lebanon Part 2: from independence to Hezbollah.".
12. Sex & Abi-Chahine, ''Modern Conflicts 2 – The Lebanese Civil War, From 1975 to 1991 and Beyond'' (2021), pp. 214-215.
13. Dunord, ''Liban: Les milices rendent leurs armes'', RAIDS Magazine (1991), p. 31.
14. Kassis, ''Invasion of Lebanon 1982'' (2019), p. 231.
15. Sex & Abi-Chahine, ''Modern Conflicts 2 – The Lebanese Civil War, From 1975 to 1991 and Beyond'' (2021), pp. 214-215.
16. McNab, ''The SVD Dragunov Rifle'' (2023), p. 50.
17. Kassis, ''Invasion of Lebanon 1982'' (2019), p. 230.
18. Neville, ''Technicals: Non-Standard Tactical Vehicles from the Great Toyota War to modern Special Forces'' (2018), p. 9.
19. Kassis, ''Invasion of Lebanon 1982'' (2019), p. 231.
20. Sex & Abi-Chahine, ''Modern Conflicts 2 – The Lebanese Civil War, From 1975 to 1991 and Beyond'' (2021), pp. 214-215.
21. Mahé, ''La Guerre Civile Libanaise, un chaos indescriptible (1975–1990)'', Trucks & Tanks Magazine (2014), p. 81.
22. Dunord, ''Liban: Les milices rendent leurs armes'', RAIDS Magazine (1991), p. 31.
23. Dunord, ''Liban: Les milices rendent leurs armes'', RAIDS Magazine (1991), p. 31.
24. Kassis, ''Invasion of Lebanon 1982'' (2019), p. 231.
25. Sex & Abi-Chahine, ''Modern Conflicts 2 – The Lebanese Civil War, From 1975 to 1991 and Beyond'' (2021), pp. 214-215.
26. McNab, ''20th Century Military Uniforms'' (2002), p. 174.
27. [https://kommandopost.com/2015/08/26/czech-mlok-camo-1961/ Pictures of Czech ''Mlok'' pattern fatigues adopted by the LCP's Popular Guard fighters in the mid-1970s]. ''kommandopost.com''
28. McNab, ''20th Century Military Uniforms'' (2002), p. 174.
29. Kassis, ''Invasion of Lebanon 1982'' (2019), p. 230.