Ahlamu

It was once proposed as "companion or confederate" by an error of the scholar Wayne T. Pitard comparing it to an unrelated Semitic root in Arabic, presumably ḤLF ح ل ف, which indeed means such.

He further compares the word form as a broken plural pattern that is found common in Arabic: bands of wild young men.

That would be a nomadic designation of the roaming raiding forces that made forays and razzias to capture flocks, slaves, and food supplies from the desert regions south and west of Mesopotamia.

[4] Assyrian King Arik-den-ili turned westward into the Levant (now Syria and Lebanon), where he managed to subjugate the Suteans, the Ahlamu and the Yauru, in the region of Katmuḫi, in the middle Euphrates.

For instance, the Suteans, a prominent Ahlamu group, were prized as capable and fierce warriors and were featured in the Ugaritic texts as such.

In addition, because of their excellent knowledge of the Syrian desert steppes, they were sometimes hired as caravan guides or drovers, the same as the nomads Suteans for large commercial expeditions.