Army of Southern Lebanon

The Armed with Southern Lebanon or ALS (in Arab: جيشلبنانالجنوبي - Jaysh Lubnān Al-Janūbiyy ; in Hebrew: צבאדרוםלבנון, צד " ל - Tzvá Dróm Levanón, Tzadál ) is a militia Lebanon ease which operated with the support of the Israeli Armée during the invasion with Israel for the Southern Lebanon during the Guerre of Lebanon.

History

The ALS was founded in 1976 by members of the Lebanese Armée based in the towns of Marjayoun and Qlayaa. Composed essentially of Christian, but also of Shiite S and Druzes Lebanese which did not accept any more the armed factions Palestinian which controlled the south of their country, the official objective of the militia was to protect the civilians Lebanese from the actions of PLO of Yasser Arafat.

With died of its first leader, Major Saad Haddad, continuations of a cancer in 1984, the ALS takes for new chief the lieutenant-general with the retirement, Antoine Lahad.

Quickly combined in Israel vis-a-vis their common enemy of the PLO, the ALS fights the Palestinian group on the ground until the Israeli invasion of 1982. After the takeover of Southern Lebanon by Israel and its partial withdrawal on the " Zone of Sécurité" in 1985, the ALS continued to help it as a combatant the forces of other Lebanese militia carried out by the Hezbollah until in 2000 and the complete withdrawal decided by the government of Ehoud Barak. The ALS was also responsible for the civil administration of the zone under military control of Tsahal. Israel provides in counterpart to the Army of Southern Lebanon, the funds, the weapons, the uniforms and the logistic equipment.

The ALS opened in 1985 a detention center with Khiam, place where cases of torture were reported. Israel always rejected all the responsibility for the activities of this center to the only ALS. This point is discussed by Amnesty International. The ALS also set up one year an obligatory military service for all the men of more than 18 years living in the Security zone of Southern Lebanon. The ALS included/understood in the years 1980 to 5000 combatants.

In the years 1990, the Hezbollah and the intelligence services Lebanese infiltrated within the ALS gradually weakened the militia whose manpower decreased in 10 years by 3000 to 1500 combatants about the year 2000.

In May 2000, the Israeli government suddenly decided to withdraw its army of the entirety of the Lebanese territory, without dialog with the ALS which was quickly exceeded and crumbled. Hezbollah took control of the positions previously held by the Army of Southern Lebanon. Certain influential members of the ALS and their families emigrated in Israel while the others went to the Lebanese authorities or were done prisoners by the Hezbollah which delivered them to the Lebanese police force to be judged for collaboration with the enemy . Those which were condemned made short stays in prison safe for those which were shown attacks against civilians and who had not fled the country, which made long periods of forced labors. Certain members of the ALS were protected by Hezbollah because they would have transmitted to them information during the Israeli occupation.

The government of Ehoud Barak was largely criticized in Israel, in particular to have caused the fast collapse of the allied ALS. April 6th, 2006, the Committee of finances of the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) approved the payment, in the 7 years which followed, of 40.000 Shekel S for each family of the veterans of the ALS.

See too

References

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