THE AMAL MOVEMENT IN LEBANON

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP83M00914R000300020014-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Sequence Number: 14
• Content Type: REPORT

 Approved Fo.Release 2007/05107. Sl-ED P83100~14R000300020014-6
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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
NATIONAL FOREIGN ASSESSMENT CENTER
20 November 1981
MEMORANDUM
THE AMAL MOVEMENT IN LEBANON
Summaru
AmaZ is the military and political wing of Lebanon's
Shia community, now the country's largest single sect.
It has several factions and independent militia, the
Largest of which is Zed by Nabih Barri, who is pro-US.
Amal's principal foreign support comes from Syria and
Iran. Its relations with the Palestinians are cool.
Most Lebanese Shias have considered Libya their primary
enemy since the disappearance there in 1978 of a prominent
Amal is the military and political wing of Lebanon's Higher
Shiite Council, the religious grouping that represents most of
the 950,000 Shias in Lebanon. The Shias are the largest single
sect in Lebanon. Amal was founded in the early 1970s by Imam
Musa Sadr, a leading proponent of Shia self-development who began
to mobilize the community in the 1960s to bring it into the
Lebanese mainstream and end its political impotence. The
formation of Amal challenged the traditional Shia leadership and
served as a basis for personal rivalries that still exist in the
Shia community. Amal has at least four factions and s veral
small, independent militia groups.
memorandum was prepared by
of the ArablsraeZi Division of the Office of Near
East South Asia Analysis at the request of the Secretary of
Defense. Information cutoff date is 20 November 1981.
Questions and comments are welcome and should be addres d
to Chief, Arab-Israeli Divison
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 Approved For Release 2007/05/07: CIA-RDP83M00914R000300020014-6
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The largest Amal faction, currently under the leadership of
Nabih Barri, is striving to gain control over the entire Shia
community, and its membership is growing rapidly. Barri is also
trying to broaden Amal's appeal by claiming that it is a
nonsectarian movement of the powerless and underprivileged. Aural
opposes the partition of Lebanon and tries to cast itself as an
Arab national movement. It cu rently has between 2,000 and 4,000
men under arms. 25X1
Nabih Barri
Amal's Foreign Ties
majority control. He opposes Soviet influence in Lebanon. 25X1
Amal's principal foreign support comes from Syria'and
Iran. The Lebanese Shia community's special relationship with
Iran predates the Iranian revolution. Musa Sadr was related to
Khomeini by marriage, and during the Shah's reign several leading
Iranian exiles lived in Lebanon. Individual Iranians and the
Iranian Government provide political, military, and financial
support to their Shia coreligionists in Lebanon.
Some factions and small independent militias have ties with
Palestinian groups, but overall Amal's relationship with the
Palestinians is cool. The Shias support the Palestinian cause,
but they generally oppose the Palestinian presence in southern
Lebanon because it attracts Israeli cross-border military
operations and shellings into that primarily Shia-inhabited area.
This resentment has resulted in several clashes in the south and
in Beirut between Amal and Palestinian groups or rival Lebanese
factions working with the Palestinians. Shia resentment against
the Palestinians has prompted Lebanese Christian leaders and
Lebanese military intelligence officials to seek common ground
with Aural and to provide support for various Amal factions. In
the south, some Shias have joined Saad Haddad's Israeli-backed
Christian militia oppose Palestinian guerrilla activities.
Amal-Libya Connection
-me aine aisappearance and probable death of Musa 25X1
r in Libya more than three years ago galvanized Lebanon's Shia
community against Libya and President Qadhafi. Since then, Shia
groups have attacked Libyan interests and activities as well as
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SECRET
 Approved Fo/r Release 2007/05/07: CIA-R DP83M009L14R000300020014-6
Lebanese groups supported by Libya on several occasions,
includin a recent bombing of a Lebanese airliner returning from
Libya.
Amal Terrorism
Amal clashes frequently with rival Lebanese factions. It
has also been involved in a series 'of Iranian-backed terrorist
activities against Iraqis and pro-Iraqi Lebanese and Palestinian
groups. One of Amal's more obscure independent militia groups is
now believed to have been responsible for the assassination in
Beirut in early September of the French Ambassador to Lebanon,
shortly after escape the to Paris of former President Bani
Sadr.
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SECRET
 Approved Fq Release 2007/05/07: CIA-RDP83M00,~'I4R000300020014-6
SUBJECT: The Amal Movement in Lebanon
DCI
DDCI
D/DCI-DDCI/ES
Executive Registry
D/NFAC
DD/NFAC
NFAC Registry
NIO/NESA
OCO/IMD/CB
D/NESA
NESA/PS
PDB
DDO/Libya
NESA/AI/D
C/NESA/AI
NFAC/NESA/AI
1 :1
20Nov81)