Lebanese Forces

The Lebanese Forces (Arabic: القوات اللبنانية al-Quwwāt al-Libnānīyah) is a Lebanese Christian-based political party and former militia during the Lebanese Civil War. It currently holds 19 of the 128 seats in Lebanon's parliament and is therefore the largest party in parliament.

The organization was created in 1976 by Pierre and Bachir Gemayel, Camille Chamoun, and other party leaders during the Lebanese Civil War. It was initially an umbrella organization coordinating all the right-wing party militias of the Lebanese Front and served as the main resistance force of the front. The Kataeb Regulatory Forces provided the largest share of fighters, and the Kataeb Party had the largest share on the council. Despite its original creation from party militias, the Lebanese Forces accepted new recruits without any specific party allegiance.

During the civil war, the Lebanese Forces fought different opponents at different times: the Palestinian Liberation Organization, the Lebanese National Movement, the Lebanese National Resistance Front, the Syrian Army, the Druze-dominated Progressive Socialist Party in the Chouf, and the Lebanese Army loyal to General Michel Aoun. After the assassination of its leader, Bachir Gemayel, in 1982, political friction within the Lebanese Front resulted in growing distance between the Kataeb militants and the rest of the Lebanese Forces. In the end, the Lebanese Forces and Kataeb became two separate forces within the Lebanese Front. A few uprisings led to Lebanese Forces commander-in-chief Samir Geagea taking over and dissolving the Lebanese Front in the late 1980s.

After the civil war ended, Geagea created the Lebanese Forces Party. In 1994, while Lebanon was under Syrian occupation, the party was banned, Geagea imprisoned and the activities of its militants repressed by the Lebanese services in Lebanon. The Lebanese Forces returned as a political force after the Cedar Revolution in early 2005, which resulted in a withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon. Soon after, Geagea was subsequently released from prison and continues to lead the party today.