Zgharta Liberation Army
| Marada Brigade/Zgharta Liberation Army جيش التحرير الزغرتاوي/لواء المردة | |
|---|---|
 Flag of the Marada Brigade/Zgharta Liberation Army (1967–1991) | |
Leaders |
|
| Dates active | 1967 – 1991 |
| Headquarters | Zgharta |
| Active regions | Northern Lebanon |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Right-wing |
| Size | 3,500 fighters |
| Part of | |
| Wars | |
The Zgharta Liberation Army – ZLA (Arabic: جيش تحرير زغرتا, romanized: Jayish Tahrir Zaghrita), also known as Zghartawi Liberation Army, was the paramilitary branch of the Lebanese Marada Movement during the Lebanese Civil War. The militia was formed in the late 1960s by the future President of Lebanon and za'im Suleiman Frangieh as the Marada Brigade (also translated as Mardaite Brigade (Arabic: Liwa' al-Marada) and was initially led by Suleiman Franjieh's son, Tony Frangieh, who held the command until his death in the June 1978 Ehden massacre. The ZLA operated mainly out of Tripoli and Zgharta, but it also fought in Beirut, Bsharri and Ehden, where they clashed with various Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) guerrilla factions and their allied leftist Muslim militias of the Lebanese National Movement (LNM), as well as the rival Christian Kataeb Regulatory Forces (KRF) militia and its successor, the Lebanese Forces (LF).