Lebanese Forces on course to emerge as biggest bloc

The Lebanese Forces (LF) party, which is opposed to Hezbollah, has said it is on course to emerge as the biggest bloc in Lebanon’s parliament after an election on Sunday. The result would mean the LF overtaking Hezbollah’s main Christian ally, President Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement, as the biggest Christian party in parliament.

How did the Lebanese Forces come into being?

The LF was established in 1976 as Lebanon descended into civil war. Bashir Gemayel, a Maronite Christian, created the LF by unifying an array of Christian militias including the armed wing of his family’s Kataeb, or Phalange, party. Gemayel was assassinated in 1982, a month after he was elected president following an Israeli invasion that reached Beirut.

Samir Geagea, who rose through the ranks under Gemayel, took control of the LF in 1986. Under his command, the LF remained the most powerful Christian militia and ran a Christian enclave. The final years of the civil war were marked by a war between the LF and then-army commander Aoun, who was head of one of the two rival Lebanese governments at the time, for control of the Christian area. This conflict, known as the ‘war of elimination’, heaped destruction on Christian areas.

Forced underground in 1994

The LF agreed to the peace deal that ended civil war and ceded control of its territory and weapons to the army in 1991.In 1994, Geagea was arrested and put on trial for bombing a church and political killings in the war. He was acquitted of the church bombing, but convicted of political killings. He spent 11 years in solitary confinement. Lebanese authorities banned the LF in 1994, jailing many LF activists and seizing its assets.

Opposing Hezbollah

A new phase began in 2005 when the Syrian army withdrew from Lebanon under international pressure following Rafik Hariri’s assassination. Geagea was released from prison. The LF joined an anti-Syrian alliance including civil war foes in confronting pro-Damascus factions, including Hezbollah.

The LF stayed out of cabinet after a popular uprising against the sectarian elite in 2019, saying Lebanon’s problems could only be fixed by a cabinet independent of political factions.

Clashes broke out between supporters of the LF and Hezbollah and its Shiite ally Amal in Beirut in 2021. Seven supporters were killed. Hezbollah accused the LF of perpetrating the killing. The LF denied this, and said supporters of the Shiite parties had vandalised cars in a Christian neighbourhood and left four residents wounded before a shot was fired.