Active Until 1978 Headquarters Zahlé Originated as 100 fighters | Leaders Aziz Wardah Strength 500 fighters | |
Groups Lebanese Front, Lebanese Forces | ||
The Zahliote Group – ZG, known also as the Groupement Zahliote (GZ) in French, was a small Christian militia raised in the Greek-Catholic town of Zahlé in the Beqaa valley, which fought in the Lebanese Civil War.
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Origins
The ZG was led by Aziz Wardah, a wealthy banker and entrepreneur, who formed it in 1975 as a movement of middle-class businessmen who contested the rule of the local feudal clans, gathered in the so-called "Seven Families" coalition headed by the Za'im Joseph Skaff.
Structure and organization
Wardah's Zahliotes, estimated at about 100-500 fighters equipped with small-arms purchased in the black market, backed by a few gun-trucks (M38A1 MD jeeps, Land-Rover series II-III and Dodge 1956 Fargo pickups fitted with Heavy machine-guns and recoilless rifles), controlled most of Zahlé until 1978, when they were finally absorbed into the Lebanese Forces.
The Zahliotes in the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1981)
Former ZG members certainly played a role in the defence of their town in December 1980, when the Free Tigers militia (aka the "Hannache Group") managed to seize by force the local National Liberal Party (NLP) offices and again in March 1981, when it was besieged by the Syrian Army during the Battle of Zahleh.