The ZG was led by Aziz Wardeh, a wealthy banker and entrepreneur, who formed it in 1975 as a movement of middle-class businessmen who contested the rule of the local feudal clans, gathered in the so-called 'Seven Families' (Arabic: سبع عائلات | Sabe Eayilat) coalition headed by the za'im (political boss) Joseph Skaff.

[1] Wardeh's Zahliotes were estimated at about 100-500 fighters equipped with small-arms purchased on the black market or taken from Lebanese Army depots and Internal Security Forces (ISF) Police stations, backed by a few gun trucks or technicals (Willys M38A1 MD jeeps, CJ-5 Jeeps, Toyota Land Cruiser (J40) and Land-Rover series II-III pickups, and Chevrolet C-10/C-15 Cheyenne light pickups) armed with Heavy machine-guns and recoilless rifles, controlled most of Zahlé until 1978, when they were finally absorbed into the Lebanese Forces.

On 14 January that year, they defended their town when it was besieged by PLO – LNM forces in retaliation for the fall of the Palestinian refugee camp of Dbayeh in the hands of the Lebanese Front's Christian militias earlier that same day.

[3] Although the ZG was integrated into the Lebanese Forces structure in 1978, its former members certainly played a role in the defence of their town on 20 December 1980, when the Free Tigers militia (a.k.a.

the "Hannache Group") managed to seize by force the local National Liberal Party (NLP) offices[4][5][6] and again in March 1981, when it was besieged by the Syrian Army during the Battle of Zahleh.