War of Brothers

This article is about the conflict in Lebanon. For other uses, see Brothers War (disambiguation) and War of the Two Brothers (disambiguation).
War of Brothers
حرب الإخوة
DateApril 1988 – November 1990
Location
Southern Lebanon, Beirut and Beqaa Valley
Result

Inconclusive

  • Later reconciliation between the two parties
Belligerents

Amal Movement

Supported by:

 Syria

Hezbollah

Supported by

 Iran

Strength
15,000–30,000[1] (only a few engaged) 25,000[1] (only a few engaged)
Casualties and losses

Between 500 and 750 dead

  • 2000+ Amal fighters wounded/dead
  • 500+ Hezbollah fighters wounded/dead

The War of Brothers (Arabic: حرب الإخوة; Harb al-Ikhwa)[n 1] was a period of violent armed clashes between rivals Amal and Hezbollah, Lebanon's main Shiite militia movements, during the final stages of the Lebanese Civil War. The fighting broke out in April 1988 and proceeded intermittently in three phases over the following years until the signing of an agreement brokered by their respective foreign backers, Syria and Iran, in November 1990.

The Amal Movement was formed in 1974 as the armed wing of popular Shiite cleric Musa al-Sadr's Movement of the Dispossessed. Amal supported the intervening Syrian army against the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). Hezbollah, on the other hand, which began as an umbrella organization consisting of more conservative elements of Lebanon's Shiite community, was born in 1982 in reaction to Israel's invasion and occupation of South Lebanon. As the Amal-initiated "War of the Camps" against the PLO ended, Hezbollah and its rival Amal began clashing in South Lebanon and in Beirut's southern suburbs.

  1. ^ a b Wagner, Abraham; Cordesman, Anthony H. (2020). The Lessons Of Modern War: Volume I: The Arab-israeli Conflicts, 1973-1989. Routledge. ISBN 9781000302943.
  2. ^ Nir 2011, p. 72.


Cite error: There are <ref group=n> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=n}} template (see the help page).