Active Until 1977 Strength 500-1,000 fighters | Headquarters Dekwaneh, east Beirut | |
Groups Lebanese Front, Lebanese Forces Leaders Bashir Maroun el-Khoury (aka “Bash Maroun”) Allies Kataeb Regulatory Forces (KRF), Guardians of the Cedars (GoC), Army of Free Lebanon (AFL), Al-Tanzim, Tigers Militia, Tyous Team of Commandos (TTC), Israel Defense Forces (IDF) | ||
The Lebanese Youth Movement – LYM (Arabic: حركة الشباب اللبنانية | Harakat al-Shabab al-Lubnaniyya), also known as the Maroun Khoury Group (MKG), was a Christian far-right militia which fought in the 1975-77 phase of the Lebanese Civil War.
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Origins
The LYM was founded in the early 1970s as an association of Maronite right-wing university students, who strongly opposed the 1969 Cairo Agreement and the presence of PLO guerrilla factions in Lebanon, by Bashir Maroun el-Khoury (nom de guerre "Bash Maroun"), the son of the former head of the Dekwaneh district of East Beirut, Naim el-Khoury.
Political beliefs
Being violently anti-communist and anti-Palestinian, the group's ideology stemmed from the extremist Phoenicist theories espoused by the Guardians of the Cedars.
The LYM in the 1975-77 civil war
The LYM/MKG joined the Lebanese Front in 1975-76 and raised its own militia with training, funds and weapons being provided by the Kataeb Party and Israel. It consisted of about 500-1,000 fighters, backed by a small armoured force made of ex-Lebanese army Panhard AML-90 armoured cars and guntrucks (Land-Rover series II-III, Toyota Land Cruiser (J40), Dodge Power Wagon W200, GMC Sierra Custom K25/K30 and Chevrolet C-10 Cheyenne light pickups) fitted with heavy machine guns, recoilless rifles and anti-aircraft autocannons. Personally commanded by Bash Maroun, they usually operated in the Ras-el-Dekwaneh, Ain el-Rammaneh and Mansouriye districts, manning the local sections of the Green Line, but also fought in other areas (Namely at the Battle of the Hotels), earning a reputation of fierce combatants.
Controversy
However, they were also renowned for their brutality – In January 1976, a force of 100 LYM militiamen took part in the sieges and subsequent massacres of the Palestinian refugee camps situated at the town of Dbayeh in the Metn, and at Karantina, al-Maslakh and Tel al-Zaatar in East Beirut. The cruelty displayed by MKG members’ in these and other atrocities, earned them the unflattering nickname “The Ghosts of the Cemeteries” – Bash Maroun’s men were normally seen wearing necklaces made from human body parts cut from their victims.
Disbandement
The MKG was subsequently absorbed into the Lebanese Forces structure in 1977, thereafter ceasing to exist as an independent organization.