Amal

Åmål is a small town in Sweden.

Amal (Arabic: afwâju l-muqâwamati l-lubnâniya) is short for the Lebanese Resistance Detachments. Amal is the popular name, meaning "hope" in Arabic. Amal became one of the most important Muslim militias during the Lebanese Civil War. Amal grew strong through its close ties with the Islamic regime of Iran, and the 300,000 Shi'i internal refugees from southern Lebanon after the Israeli bombings in the early 1980s. At its most the militia had 14,000 troops.

History

1973 February: The Movement of the Disinherited is formed by the radical Shi'i leader Imam Musa s-Sadr.

1975 July: The Lebanese Resistance Detachments are formed as a military wing of The Movement of the Disinherited, and came to be popularly known as Amal.

1978: New leadership of Amal, with Shaykh Muhammad Mahdi Shamsi d-Din and Hussein Husseini, after that Musa s-Sadr disappears.

1979: Following the Islamic revolution in Iran, Amal forges close ties with the new regime of Teheran.

1982: Nabih Berri becomes one of the leaders of Amal. He was a Shi'i layman, but maintained close relations with Syria.

1991 September: With background in the Syrian controlled end of the Lebanese Civil War in October 1990, 2,800 Amal troops joined the Lebanese army.