Tigers Militia (Lebanon)
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The Tigers (Arabic, numūr) 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 500 militiamen [1] fought the Lebanese National Movement (LNM) and its Palestinian allies, which from late 1976 included the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). The group was active in a number of battles in Lebanon, 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 1977, these 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 Bashir Gemayel. Bashir and Dany were friends and allies until Gemayel decided to take over all christian Lebanese militias.
In 1980, the Tigers suffered many casualties and were destroyed as a fighting force by the Gemayel's LF. Gemayel was intent on establishing the LF, under his command, as the sole Christian militia, and Suleiman Frangieh's Marada Brigades was also attacked but the LF failed to take them over. Dany Chamoun fled to Syria, and later resettled in West Beirut. He eventually returned to East Beirut, where he was assassinated in 1990.
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