The movement's militia was secretly established on 20 January 1975 with the help of the Palestinian Fatah, who provided weapons and training at their Beqaa facilities. The formation of Amal was revealed in July that year when an accidental explosion of a landmine at one of the Fatahland camps near Baalbek killed over 60 Shia trainees, which caused considerable embarrassment to Fatah and forced Al-Sadr to admit publicly the militia's existence.[11][12] When the civil war finally broke out in April 1975, Amal's strength stood at about 1,500–3,000 armed militants, backed by a motor force of gun-trucks (a.k.a. technicals) fitted with heavy machine guns, recoilless rifles and anti-aircraft autocannons.