Marada Movement

Lebanon

The Marada Movement (Arabic: تيار المردة‎ Tayyār Al-Marada) is a Lebanese political party and a former militia active during the Lebanese civil war named after the legendary Marada (also called Mardaites) warriors of the early Middle Ages that fought on the external edge of the Byzantine Empire. Originally designated the Marada Brigade (لواء المردة Liwa al-Marada), the group initially emerged as the personal militia of Suleiman Frangieh, president of Lebanon at the outbreak of the war in 1975. They were also initially known as the Zgharta Liberation Army – ZLA (Arabic: Zgharta Jayish al-Tahrir) or Armée de Liberation de Zgharta (ALZ) in French, after Frangieh's hometown of Zgharta in northern Lebanon.