The Armée de Libération Nationale or ALN (French, National Liberation Army) was the armed wing of the nationalist Front de Libération National (FLN) during the Algerian War of Independence. After the independence of Algeria from France in 1962, the ALN was converted into the regular armed forces of the republic, but its leadership also came to play a prominent role in Algerian politics - as in the 1965 coup d'état by Col. Houari Boumédiènne.
In 1958, the French army closed the borders of Algeria. The ALN of Tunisia made many attempt to break the morice line but was crushed in all the battles after very heavy fighting. On the Morocco frontier, the situation was the same, so the ALN based in foreign countries never attempted again to break the French lines, leaving the French army destroy the ALN units in Algeria. The consequences were that when independence was granted, the border armies appeared much stronger than the army based in Algeria, not far from destruction after the "plan Challe" (1959-1960).