Palestine Liberation Army

The Palestine Liberation Army (PLA) was ostensibly set up as the military wing of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) at the 1964 Arab League summit , with the mission of fighting Israel. However, it has never been under effective PLO control, but rather it has been controlled by its various host governments, usually Syria.

History and structure

Immediately after its creation at the 1964 Arab League summit , the PLO (headed by Ahmad Shukeiri) was effectively under the control of the Arab states, especially Nasser's Egypt. The Palestinians would not gain independent control of the organization until Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction wrested it from Nasser-backed Palestinians in 1968-69, when the Arab states were discredited by the Six-Day War, and militant Palestinian organizations were rapidly gaining in importance.

The PLA was originally organized into three brigades:

• Ayn Jalut, based in Gaza, then administered by Egypt.
• Qadisiyyah, originally based in Iraq, but transferred to Jordan in 1967.
• Hattin, based......
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