Sixth of February Movement

{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2016}}

{{Short description|Lebanese Nasserist Armed Group}}

{{Infobox War Faction

| name = Sixth of February Movement – 6th FM
حركة السادس من فبراير

| war = Lebanese Civil War

| image =

| caption =

| active = Until 1986

| leaders = (unknown)

| headquarters = West Beirut

| area = West Beirut

| size = 150 fighters

| predecessor = 100 fighters

| partof = Lebanese National Movement

| allies = 22px Al-Mourabitoun
File:OACLsymbol.PNG Communist Action Organization in Lebanon (OCAL)
Kurdish Democratic Party – Lebanon (KDP-L)
{{flagicon|Palestine}} Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)

| opponents = File:Forces Libanaises Flag.svg Lebanese Front
File:Forces Libanaises Flag.svg Lebanese Forces
{{flagicon|Lebanon}} Lebanese Armed Forces
22px Progressive Socialist Party (PSP)/22px People's Liberation Army (PLA)
{{flagicon image|Flag of the Lebanese Communist Party.svg}} Lebanese Communist Party (LCP)/Popular Guard
File:Flag of the Amal Movement (version).svg Amal Movement
{{flagicon image|Flag of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party.svg}} Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP)/Eagles of the Whirlwind
{{flagicon|PLO}} Palestinian National Salvation Front (PNSF)
{{flagicon image|Flag of the United Arab Republic (1958–1971), Flag of Syria (1980–2024).svg}} Syrian Arab Armed Forces
{{flagicon|Israel}} Israel Defense Forces (IDF)

}}

The Sixth of February Movement or '6th FM' (Arabic: حركة السادس من فبراير | Harakat al-Sadis min Fibrayir) was a small, predominantly Sunni Nasserist political party and militia active in Lebanon from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s.

Structure and organization

Based at West Beirut, the '6th FM' strength was estimated at about 100–150 fighters armed and trained by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

The Civil War years 1975–1986

The '6th FM' joined the ranks of the Lebanese National Movement (LNM) and its military wing, the Joint Forces (LNM-JF), during the 1975–77 phase of the Lebanese Civil War, fighting alongside other Nasserist-oriented factions. However, the political collapse of the LNM in the wake of the June 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the subsequent departure of the PLO from Beirut meant that the smaller Nasserist militias ('6th FM' included) had to fend for themselves.

Their unwavering support for the PLO resulted in the adoption of a hostile stance regarding Syria's military presence in Lebanon and when the War of the Camps broke out at Beirut in May 1985, the '6th FM' allied itself with the pro-Arafat Palestinian refugee camp militias, the Al-Mourabitoun, the Communist Action Organization in Lebanon (OCAL), and the Kurdish Democratic Party – Lebanon (KDP-L) against a powerful coalition of Druze Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), Lebanese Communist Party (LCP), and Shia Muslim Amal movement militia forces backed by Syria,Stork, Joe. "[https://www.jstor.org/stable/3010810 The War of the Camps, The War of the Hostages]" in MERIP Reports, No. 133. (June 1985), pp. 3–7, 22. the Lebanese Army,O'Ballance, Civil War in Lebanon (1998), p. 158. and anti-Arafat dissident Palestinian guerrilla factions gathered into the Palestinian National Salvation Front (PNSF). Eventually, the '6th FM' bore the brunt of this all-out offensive until being finally suppressed by the Amal Movement in June 1986. This faction is no longer active.

See also

Notes

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References

{{refbegin|30em}}

  • Edgar O'Ballance, Civil War in Lebanon, 1975–92, Palgrave Macmillan, London 1998. {{ISBN|0-333-72975-7}}
  • Fawwaz Traboulsi, A History of Modern Lebanon: Second Edition, Pluto Press, London 2012. {{ISBN|978-0745332741}}
  • Marius Deeb, The Lebanese Civil War, Praeger Publishers Inc., New York 1980. {{ISBN|978-0030397011}}
  • Rex Brynen, Sanctuary and Survival: the PLO in Lebanon, Boulder: Westview Press, Oxford 1990. {{ISBN|0 86187 123 5}} – [https://prrn.mcgill.ca/research/papers/brynen2.htm]
  • Robert Fisk, Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War, London: Oxford University Press, (3rd ed. 2001). {{ISBN|0-19-280130-9}} – [https://books.google.com/books?id=VrXpeELOUNsC&pg=PA145]
  • Tom Najem and Roy C. Amore, Historical Dictionary of Lebanon, Second Edition, Historical Dictionaries of Asia, Oceania, and the Middle East, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Lanham, Boulder, New York & London 2021. {{ISBN|9781538120439}}, 1538120437
  • William W. Harris, Faces of Lebanon: Sects, Wars, and Global Extensions, Princeton Series on the Middle East, Markus Wiener Publishers, Princeton 1997. {{ISBN|978-1558761155}}, 1-55876-115-2

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Category:Arab nationalism in Lebanon

Category:Arab nationalist militant groups

Category:Factions in the Lebanese Civil War

Category:Israeli–Lebanese conflict

Category:Lebanese National Movement

Category:Nasserist organizations

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