North Yemen Civil War
Encyclopedia
The North Yemen Civil War was fought in North Yemen
between royalists of the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen
and factions of the Yemen Arab Republic
from 1962 to 1970. The war began with a coup d'état
carried out by the republican leader, Abdullah as-Sallal
, which dethroned the newly crowned Imam al-Badr and declared Yemen a republic under his presidency. The Imam escaped to the Saudi Arabia
n border and rallied popular support.
On the royalist side Jordan
and Saudi Arabia
supplied military aid, and Britain
gave diplomatic support, while the republicans were supported by Egypt
and allegedly received warplanes from the Soviet Union
.
Both foreign irregular and conventional forces were involved. The Egyptian President
, Gamal Abdel Nasser
, supported the republicans with as many as 70,000 Egyptian troops. Despite several military moves and peace conferences, the war sank into a stalemate. Egypt's commitment to the war is considered to have been detrimental to its performance in the Six-Day War
of June 1967, after which Nasser found it increasingly difficult to maintain his army's involvement and began to pull his forces out of Yemen.
By 1970, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia
recognized the republic after al- Badr refused to cede Najran, Jizan and Aseer to Saudi Arabia in return of continued aid, his famous response was "Their people are the most worthy of it" and sensing the willingness of the coup forces to cede those lands to the Saudis a truce was signed. Egyptian military historians refer to the war in Yemen as their Vietnam, and historian Michael Oren
(current Israeli Ambassador to the U.S) wrote that Egypt's military adventure in Yemen was so disastrous that "the imminent Vietnam War
could easily have been dubbed America's Yemen."
, who had inherited the Yemeni throne in 1948, was known as "Ahmad the devil" by his enemies. In 1955, Iraq
-trained Colonel Ahmad Thalaya led a revolt against him. A group of soldiers under his command surrounded the royal palace of Al Urdhi at Taiz, a fortified stronghold where the Imam lived with his harem, the royal treasure, an arsenal of modern weapons, and a 150 strong palace-guard, and demanded Ahmad's abdication. Ahmad agreed, but demanded that his son, Imam al-Badr succeed him. Thalaya refused, preferring the King's half brother, the Emir Saif el Islam Abdullah, the 48-year-old Foreign Minister. While Abdullah began forming a new government, Ahmad opened the treasury coffers and secretly began buying off the besieging soldiers. After five days, the number of besiegers was reduced from 600 to 40. Ahmad then came out of the palace,wearing a devil's mask and wielding a long scimitar, terrifying the beseigers. He slashed two sentries dead before exchanging the sword for a sub-machine gun and leading his 150 guards onto the roof of the palace to begin a direct attack on the rebels. After 28 hours, 23 rebels and one palace guard were dead and Thalaya gave up. Abdullah was later reported executed, and Thalaya was publicly decapitated.
In March 1958, al-Badr arrived in Damascus
to tell Nasser of Yemen's adherence to the UAR
. However, Ahmad was to keep his throne and his absolute power, and the arrangement constituted only a close alliance. In 1959 Ahmad went to Rome
to treat his arthritis, rheumatism, heart trouble and, reportedly, drug addiction. Fights between tribal chieftains erupted, and al-Badr unsuccessfully tried to buy off the dissidents by promising "reforms", including the appointment of a representative council, more army pay and promotions. Upon his return, Ahmad swore to crush the "agents of the Christians". He ordered the decapitation of one of his subjects and the amputation of the left hand and right foot of 15 others, in punishment for the murder of a high official the previous June. Al-Badr was only rebuked for his leniency, but the Yemeni radio stopped broadcasting army officers' speeches, and talks of reforms were silenced.
In June 1961, Ahmad was still recovering from an assassination attempt four months earlier, and moved out of the capital, Taiz, into the pleasure palace of Sala
. Already Defense and Foreign Minister, Badr became acting Prime Minister and Interior Minister as well. Despite being Crown Prince, al-Badr still needed to be picked by the Ulema
in San'a. Al-Badr was not popular with the Ulema due to his association with Nasser, and the Ulema had refused Ahmad's request to ratify Badr's title. Imam Ahmad died on September 18, 1962, and was succeeded by his son, Imam al-Badr. One of al-Badr's first acts was to appoint Colonel Abdullah Sallal, a known socialist and Nasserist, as commander of the palace guard.
Nasser had looked to a regime change in Yemen since 1957 and finally put his desires into practice in January 1962 by giving the Free Yemen Movement office space, financial support, and radio air time. Anthony Nutting
's biography of Gamal Abdel-Nasser identifies several factors that led the Egyptian President to send expeditionary forces to Yemen. These included the unraveling of the union with Syria
in 1961, which dissolved his United Arab Republic
(UAR), damaging his prestige. A quick decisive victory in Yemen could help him recover leadership of the Arab world
. Nasser also had his reputation as an anti-colonial force, setting his sights on ridding South Yemen, and its strategic port city of Aden
, of British
forces.
Mohamed Heikal
, a chronicler of Egyptian national policy decision making and confidant of Nasser, wrote in For Egypt Not For Nasser, that he had engaged Nasser on the subject of supporting the coup in Yemen. Heikal argued that Sallal's revolution could not absorb the massive number of Egyptian personnel who would arrive in Yemen to prop up his regime, and that it would be wise to consider sending Arab nationalist volunteers from throughout the Middle East to fight alongside the republican Yemeni forces, suggesting the Spanish Civil War
as a template from which to conduct events in Yemen. Nasser refused Heikal's ideas, insisting on the need to protect the Arab nationalist movement. Nasser was convinced that a regiment of Egyptian Special Forces and a wing of fighter-bomber
s would be able to secure the Yemeni republican coup d'état
.
Nasser's considerations for sending troops to Yemen may have included the following: (1) impact of his support to the Algerian War of Independence
from 1954–62; (2) Syria
breaking up from Nasser's United Arab Republic
(UAR) in 1961; (3) taking advantage of a breach in British
and French relations, which had been strained by Nasser's support for the FLN
in Algeria
and primarily for his efforts to undermine the Central Treaty Organization
(CENTO), which caused the downfall of the Iraqi monarchy in 1958; (4) confronting imperialism
, which Nasser saw as Egypt's destiny; (5) guaranteeing dominance of the Red Sea
from the Suez Canal
to the Bab-el-Mandeb
strait; (6) retribution against the Saudi royal family, whom Nasser felt had undermined his union with Syria.
At least four plots were going on in San'a. One was headed by Lieutenant Ali Abdul al Moghny. Another one was conceived by Sallal. His plot merged into a third conspiracy prodded by the Hashid tribal confederation in revenge for Ahmad's execution of their paramount sheik and his son. A fourth plot was shaped by several young princes who sought to get rid of al-Badr but not the imamate. The only men who knew about those plots were the Egyptian chargé d'affaires
, Abdul Wahad, and al-Badr himself. The day after Ahmad's death, al-Badr's minister in London, Ahmad al Shami, sent him a telegram urging him not to go to San'a to attend his father's funeral because several Egyptian officers, as well as some of his own, were plotting against him. Al-Badr's private secretary did not pass this message to him, pretending he did not understand the code. Al-Badr may have been saved by the gathering of thousands of men at the funeral. Al-Badr learned of the telegram only later.
A day before the coup Wahad, who claimed to have information from the Egyptian intelligence service, warned al-Badr that Sallal and fifteen other officers, including Moghny, were planning a revolution. Wahad's purpose was to cover himself and Egypt in case the coup failed, to prompt the plotters into immediate action, and drive Sallal and Moghny into a single conspiracy. Sallal got imamic permission to bring in the armed forces. Then, Wahad went to Moghny, and told him that al-Badr had somehow discovered the plot, and that he must act immediately before the other officers would be arrested. He told him that if he could hold San'a, the radio and the airport for three days, the whole of Europe would recognize him.
Sallal ordered that the military academy in San'a go on full alert — opening all armories and issuing weapons to all junior officers and troops. On the evening of September 25, Sallal gathered known leaders of the Yemeni nationalist movement and other officers who had sympathized or participated in the military protests of 1955. Each officer and cell would be given orders and would commence as soon as the shelling of al-Badr's palace began. Key areas that would be secured included Al-Bashaer palace (al-Badr's palace); Al-Wusul palace (Reception area for dignitaries); The radio station; The telephone exchange; Qasr al-Silaah (The Main Armory); and The central security headquarters (Intelligence
and Internal Security).
The battle at the palace continued until guards surrendered to the revolutionaries the following morning. The radio station was first to fall, secured after a loyalist officer was killed and resistance collapsed. The armory was perhaps the easiest target, as a written order from Sallal was sufficient to open the storage facility, beat the royalists, and secure rifles, artillery and ammunition for the resistance. The telephone exchange likewise fell without any resistance. At the Al-Wusul Palace, revolutionary units remained secure under the guise of granting and protecting diplomats and dignitaries staying there to greet the new Imam of Yemen. By late morning on September 26, all areas of San'a were secure and the radio broadcast that Imam al-Badr had been overthrown by the new revolutionary government in power. Revolutionary cells in the cities of Taiz, Al-Hujja and the port city of Hodeida then began securing arsenals, airports and port facilities.
Al-Badr and his personal servants managed to escape through a door in the garden wall in the back of the palace. Because of the curfew declared, they had to avoid the main streets. They decided to escape individually and meet in the village of Gabi al Kaflir, where they were reunited after a forty-five minute walk. Sallal had to defeat a fellow revolutionary, Al-Baidani, an intellectual holding a doctorate degree, who did not share in Nasser's vision. On September 28, the radio announced al-Badr's death. Sallal gathered tribesmen in San'a and proclaimed: "The corrupt monarchy which ruled for a thousand years was a disgrace to the Arab nation and to all humanity. Anyone who tries to restore it is an enemy of God and man!" By then, he had learned that al-Badr was still alive and had made his way to Saudi Arabia.
Egyptian General Ali Abdul Hameed was dispatched by plane, and arrived on September 29 to assess the situation and needs of the Yemeni Revolutionary Command Council. Egypt sent a battalion of Special Forces (Saaqah) on a mission to act as personal guards for Sallal. They arrived at Hodeida on October 5. Fifteen days after he had left San'a, al-Badr sent a man ahead to the Saudi Arabia to announce that he was alive. He then went there himself, crossing the border near Khobar
, at the north-western edge of the kingdom.
, fearing Nasserist
encroachment, moved troops along its border with Yemen, as the Jordanian monarch dispatched his Army chief of staff for discussions with al-Badr's uncle, Prince Hassan. Between October 2–8 four Saudi cargo planes left Saudi Arabia loaded with arms and military material for Yemeni royalist tribesmen; however, the pilots defected to Aswan
. Ambassadors from Bonn
, London
, Washington D.C. and Amman
supported the Imam while ambassadors from Cairo
, Rome
and Belgrade
declared support for the republican revolution. The USSR was the first nation to recognize the new republic, and Nikita Khrushchev
cabled Sallal: "Any act of aggression against Yemen will be considered an act of aggression against the Soviet Union."
The United States was concerned that the conflict might spread to other parts of the Middle East. President John F. Kennedy
rushed off notes to Nasser, Feisal, Hussein and Sallal. His plan was that Nasser's troops should withdraw from Yemen while Saudi Arabia and Jordan halted their aid to the Imam. Nasser agreed to pull out his forces only after Jordan and Saudi Arabia "stop all aggressive operations on the frontiers". Feisal and Hussein rejected Kennedy's plan, since it would involve US recognition of the "rebels". They insisted that the US should withhold recognition of Sallal's Presidency since the Imam might still regain control of Yemen, and that Nasser had no intention of pulling out. The Saudis argued that Nasser wanted their oil fields and was hoping to use Yemen as a springboard for revolt in the rest of the Arabian peninsula. King Hussein of Jordan
was also convinced that Nasser's target was Saudi Arabia's oil, and that if the Saudis went, he would be next.
Sallal declared "I warn America that if it does not recognize the Yemen Arab Republic, I shall not recognize it!". US Chargé d'Affaires
in Taiz, Robert Stookey, reported that the republican regime was in full control of the country, except in some border areas. However, the British government was insisting on the strength of the Imam's tribal support. A letter written by President Kennedy to Faisal dated October 25, which was kept confidential until January 1963, said: "You may be assured of full US support for the maintenance of Saudi Arabian integrity". American jet aircraft twice staged shows of force in Saudi Arabia. The first involved six F-100
jets staging stunt-flying demonstrations over Riyadh
and Jeddah
; on the second, two jet bombers and a giant jet transport, while returning to their base near Paris
after a visit to Karachi
, Pakistan
, put on a demonstration over Riyadh.
Sallal proclaimed Yemen's "firm policy to honor its international obligations", including a 1934 treaty pledging respect for Britain's Aden Protectorate
. Nasser promised to "start gradual withdrawal" of its 18,000-man force, "provided Saudi and Jordanian forces also retire from border regions", but would leave his technicians and advisers behind. On December 19, the US became the 34th nation to recognize the Yemen Arab Republic. United Nations
recognition followed that of the US by a day. The UN continued to consider the republic the only authority in the land and completely ignored the royalists.
Britain, with its commitment to South Arabia and its base in Aden, considered the Egyptian invasion a real threat. Recognition of the republic posed a problem to several treaties Britain had signed with the sheiks and sultans of the South Arabian Federation. Saudi Arabia urged the British to identify themselves with the royalists. On the other hand, there were some in the British Foreign Office who believed Britain could buy security for Aden by recognizing the republic. However, Britain eventually decided not to recognize. Iran
, Turkey
and most of western Europe also withheld recognition. The republic did receive the recognition of West Germany
, Italy, Canada and Australia, as well as the remaining Arab governments, Ethiopia
and the entire communist bloc.
A week after the American recognition, Sallal boasted at a military parade the republic had rockets that could strike "the palaces of Saudi Arabia", and in early January the Egyptians again bombed and strafed Najran
, a Saudi Arabian city near the Yemenite border. The US responded with another aerial demonstration over Jeddah and a destroyer joined on January 15. The US reportedly agreed to send antiaircraft batteries and radar-control equipment to Najran. In addition, Ralph Bunche
was sent to Yemen, where he met with Sallal and Egyptian Field Marshal Abdel Hakim Amer
. On March 6 Bunche was in Cairo, where Nasser reportedly assured him that he would withdraw his troops from Yemen if the Saudis would stop supporting the royalists.
, the United States Department of State
sought the help of ambassador Ellsworth Bunker
. His mission was based on a decision made by the National Security Council
, which was conceived by McGeorge Bundy
and Robert Komer
. The idea behind what became known as "Operation Hard-surface" was to trade American protection (or the appearance of it) for a Saudi commitment to halt aid to the royalists, on the basis of which the Americans would get Nasser to withdraw his troops. The operation would consist of "eight little planes."
Bunker arrived in Riyadh on March 6. Faisal refused Bunker's offer, which was also hitched to pledges of reform. The original instructions for Operation Hard-surface were that American planes would "attack and destroy" any intruders over Saudi air space, but were later changed to read that the Saudis could defend themselves if attacked. Bunker evidently stuck to the original formula and stressed that if only Faisal would halt his aid to the royalists, the US would be able pressure Nasser to withdraw. Faisal eventually accepted the offer, and Bunker went on to meet with Nasser in Beirut
, where the Egyptian President repeated the assurance he had given Bunche.
The Bunche and Bunker mission gave birth to the idea of an observer mission to Yemen, which eventually became the United Nations Yemen Observation Mission
. The U.N. observer team, which would be set up by the former UN Congo
commander, Swedish
Major General Carl von Horn. His disengagement agreement called for (1) Establishment of a demilitarized zone extending twenty kilometers on either side of a demarcated Saudi Arabian Yemen border, from which all military equipment was to be excluded; (2) Stationing of UN observers within this zone on both sides of the border to observe, report and prevent any continued attempt by the Saudis to supply royalist forces.
On April 30, von Horn was sent to discover what kind of force was required. A few days later, he met with Amer in Cairo and found out that Egypt had no intention of drawing all her troops from Yemen. After a few more days, he was told by the Saudi deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Omar Saqqaff, that the Saudis would not accept any attempt by Egypt to leave security forces after their withdrawal. Saudi Arabia had already been cutting back on its support to the royalists, in part because Egypt's projected plan for unity with Syria
and Iraq
made Nasser seem too dangerous. By that time, the war cost Egypt $1,000,000 a day and nearly 5,000 casualties. Though promising to remove her troops, Egypt had the privilege of leaving an unspecified number for the "training" of Yemen's republican army.
In June, von Horn went to San'a, unsuccessfully trying to achieve the objective of 1) ending Saudi aid to the royalists, 2) creating a 25-mile demilitarized strip along the Saudi border, and 3) supervising the phased withdrawal of the Egyptian troops. In September, von Horn cabled his resignation to Thant, who announced that the mission would continue, due to "oral assurances" by Egypt and Saudi Arabia to continue financing it. The number of Egyptian troops increased, and in the end of January, the "Hard-surface" squadron was withdrawn after a wrangle with Faisal. On September 4, 1964, the UN admitted failure and withdrew its mission.
Imam al-Badr led his campaign with the princes of the house of Hamidaddin. Those included Hassan bin Yahya, who had come from New York, Mohamed bin Hussein, Mohamed bin Ismail, Ibrahim al Kipsy, and Abdul Rahman bin Yahya. At fifty-six, Hassan bin Yahya was the oldest and most distinguished. Prince Hassan was made Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief. The Imam was joined by his childhood pen pal, American Bruce Conde
, who set up the post office and would later rise to the rank of general in the Royalist forces.
In 1963, the Saudis spent $15 million to equip royalist tribes, hire hundreds of European mercenaries, and establish their own radio station. Pakistan
, which saw a chance to make money in the conflict, extended rifles to the royalists. Remnants of the Imam's Army also had elements of the Saudi National Guard fight alongside its ranks. Iran
subsidized royalist forces on and off, as the Shah
felt compelled to provide al-Badr (a Shiite Zeidi) with financing. The British
allowed convoys of arms to flow through one of its allies in Northern Yemen, the Sheriff of Beijan, who was protected by the British administration in Aden
. British military planes conduced night operations to resupply al-Badr's forces. The MI6 was responsible for contacting the royalists, and used the services of a private company belonging to Colonel David Stirling
, founder of the Special Air Service
(SAS), who recruited dozens of former SAS men as advisors to the royalists. Britain participated in a $400 million British air defense program for Saudi Arabia. The Lyndon Johnson administration was more willing than Kennedy's to support long-range plans in support of the Saudi army. In 1965, the US authorized an agreement with the Corps of Engineers
to supervise the construction of military facilities and in 1966 it sponsored a $100 million program which provided the Saudi forces with combat vehicles, mostly trucks. Faisal also initiated an Islamic alignment called the Islamic Conference, to counter Nasser's Arab socialism
.
The tribes of Southern Saudi Arabia and Northern Yemen were closely linked, and the Saudis enticed thousands of Yemeni workers in Saudi Arabia to assist the royalist cause. In addition to the Saudis and British, the Iraqis also sent plane loads of Baathist Yemenis to undermine Sallal's regime. The royalists fought for the Imam despite his father's unpopularity. One sheik said "The Imams have ruled us for a thousand years. Some were good and some bad. We killed the bad ones sooner or later, and we prospered under the good ones". The hill tribes were Shia, like the Imam, while the Yemenis of the coast and the south were Sunni, as were most Egyptians. President Sallal was himself a mountain Shia fighting with lowland Sunnis. Al-Badr himself was convinced that he was Nasser's biggest target, saying "Now I'm getting my reward for befriending Nasser. We were brothers, but when I refused to become his stooge, he used Sallal against me. I will never stop fighting. I will never go into exile. Win or lose, my grave will be here".
Al-Badr had formed two royalist armies - one under his uncle Prince Hassan in the east and one under his own control in the west. Both armies controlled most of the north and east of Yemen, including the towns of Harib and Marib. The provincial capital of Northern Yemen, Sadah, which would have given the Imam a key strategic road towards the main capital San'a, was controlled by the republicans. There were also areas like the town of Hajjah
, where the royalists controlled the mountains while the Egyptians and republicans controlled the town and fortress. Mercenaries
from France, Belgium
and England, who had fought in Rhodesia
, Malaya
, Indochina
and Algeria
, were sent to assist the Imam in planning, training and giving the irregular forces the ability to communicate with one another and the Saudis. They trained tribesmen in the use of antitank weapons
, such as the 106mm gun and in mining techniques. The numbers of mercenaries are estimated in the hundreds, although Egyptian sources at the time reported 15,000. Royalist tactics were confined to guerilla warfare, isolating conventional Egyptian and republican forces, and conducting attacks on supply lines.
Three decades after the war, former Mossad
director, Shabtai Shavit
, and Ariel Sharon
both said Israel had been clandestinely involved in Yemen. Some of the royalist air drops were aided by the Israeli Air Force
(IAF). The aircraft were contracted privately to the British mercenary operation and were either using Israeli air bases or Israeli transport planes themselves making the drops.
According to "Haaretz" newspaper, one of the SAS advisers, Tony Boyle, contacted David Karon, the head of the Middle East department in the Tevel (Cosmos) section of the Mossad, and met with IAF commander Ezer Weizman
and his officers. It was decided that the airdrops would be made. The Israeli aircraft flew along the Saudi coastline. The Saudis did not have radar systems, and would later claim they were not aware of the airlifts. The Israeli planes would make the drops and then refuel in French Somaliland
(now Djibouti
) and return to Israel. The airlifts were originally codenamed "Operation Gravy", but were later renamed "Operation Porcupine". The IAF's largest transport plane, the Stratofreighter, was recruited for the operation. The first flight took off in March 1964 from Tel Nof Airbase
. During the sixth flight, Boyle suggested that the IAF would also bomb San'a. Weizman supported the idea and plans were made, but the Israel Defense Forces
Chief of Staff (Ramatkal
) Yitzhak Rabin
and Israeli Prime Minister, Levi Eshkol
, denied him. The operation went on over a period of slightly more than two years, during which the Stratofreighter carried out 14 nighttime sorties from Tel Nof to Yemen. The Mossad also operated several agents in Yemen. One of them, Baruch Mizrahi, was caught in 1967 and was imprisoned in Egypt. He was released in a prisoner exchange between Egypt and Israel following the Yom Kippur War
in 1973.
Anwar Sadat
was convinced that a regiment reinforced with aircraft could firmly secure Al-Sallal and his free officer movement, but within three months of sending troops to Yemen, Nasser realized that this would require a larger commitment than anticipated. A little less than 5,000 troops were sent in October 1962. Two months later, Egypt had 15,000 regular troops deployed. By late 1963, the number was increased to 36,000; and in late 1964, the number rose to 50,000 Egyptian troops in Yemen. In late 1965, the Egyptian troop commitment in Yemen was at 55,000 troops, which were broken into 13 infantry regiments of one artillery division, one tank division and several Special Forces as well as paratroop regiments. Ahmed Abu-Zeid, who served as Egypt's ambassador to royalist Yemen from 1957 to 1961, sent numerous reports on Yemen that did not reach Ministry of Defense officials. He warned Egyptian officials in Cairo
, including Defense Minister Amer, that the tribes were difficult and had no sense of loyalty or nationhood. He opposed sending Egyptian combat forces and, arguing that only money and equipment be sent to the Yemeni Free Officers, and warned that the Saudis would finance the royalists.
All the Egyptian field commanders complained of a total lack of topographical maps causing a real problem in the first months of the war. Commanders had difficulty planning military operations effectively or sending back routine and casualty reports without accurate coordinates. Field units were given maps that were only of use for aerial navigation. Chief of Egyptian Intelligence, Salah Nasr
, admitted that information on Yemen was nonexistent. Egypt had not had an embassy in Yemen since 1961; therefore when Cairo requested information from the US ambassador to Yemen, all he provided was an economic report on the country.
In 1963 and 1964 the Egyptians had five squadrons of aircraft in Yemen at airfields near San'a and Hodeida. They were using Yak-11
piston-engined fighters, MiG-15 and MiG-17 jet fighters, Ilyushin Il-28
twin-engined bombers, Ilyushin Il-14
twin-engined transports and Mil Mi-4
transport helicopters. They were also flying four-engined Tupolev
bombers from bases in Egypt, such as Aswan
. All the air crew were Egyptian, except for the Tupolev bombers which were thought to have mixed Egyptian and Russian personnel. The Ilyushin transports flying between Egypt and Hodeida had Russian crews. Throughout the war, the Egyptians relied on airlift
. In January 1964, when royalist forces placed San'a under siege, Egyptian Antonov
heavy-lift cargo planes airlifted tons of food and kerosene into the region. The Egyptians estimate that hundreds of millions of dollars were spent to equip Egyptian and republican Yemeni forces, and in addition, Moscow
refurbished the Al-Rawda Airfield outside San'a. The politburo
saw a chance to gain a toehold on the Arabian Peninsula and accepted hundreds of Egyptian officers to be trained as pilots for service in the Yemen War.
Egyptian air and naval forces began bombing and shelling raids in the Saudi southwestern city of Najran
and the coastal town of Jizan
, which were staging points for royalist forces. In response, the Saudis purchased a British Thunderbird air defense system
and developed their airfield in Khamis Mushayt. Riyadh
also attempted to convince Washington to respond on its behalf. President Kennedy sent only a wing of jet fighters and bombers to Dhahran
Airbase, demonstrating to Nasser the seriousness of American commitment to defending U.S. interests in Saudi Arabia.
The Egyptian General Staff
divided the Yemen War into three operational objectives. The first was the air phase, it began with jet trainers modified to strafe and carry bombs and ended with three wings of fighter-bombers, stationed near the Saudi-Yemeni border. Egyptian sorties went along the Tiahma Coast of Yemen and into the Saudi towns of Najran
and Jizan
. It was designed to attack royalist ground formations and substitute the lack of Egyptian formations on the ground with high-tech air power. In combination with Egyptian air strikes, a second operational phase involved securing major routes leading to San'a, and from there secure key towns and hamlets. The largest offensive based on this operational tactic was the March 1963 "Ramadan
Offensive" that lasted until February 1964, focused on opening and securing roads from San'a to Sadah to the North, and San'a to Marib to the East. The success of the Egyptian forces meant that royalist resistance could take refuge in hills and mountains to regroup and carry out hit-and-run offensives against republican and Egyptian units controlling towns and roads. The third strategic offensive was the pacification of tribes and their enticement to the republican government, meaning the expenditures of massive amounts of funds for humanitarian needs and outright bribery of tribal leaders.
The Ramadan offensive began in February 1963 when Amer and Sadat arrived in San'a. Amer asked Cairo to double the 20,000 men in Yemen, and in early February the first 5,000 of the reinforcement arrived. On February 18 a task force of fifteen tanks, twenty armored cars, eighteen trucks and numerous jeeps took off from San'a' moving northwards, heading for Sadah. More garrison troops followed. A few days later another task force, spearheaded by 350 men in tanks and armored cars, struck out from Sadah southeastwards toward Marib. The maneuvered into the Rub al-Khali desert, perhaps well into Saudi territory, and there they were built up by an airlift. Then they headed westwards. On February 25 they occupied Marib and on March 7 they took Harib. A royalist force of 1,500 men ordered down from Najran failed to stop them on their way out from Sadah. The royalist commander at Harib fled to Beihan
, on the British-protected side of the border. In the battle of El Argoup, 25 miles southeast of San'a, 500 royalists under Prince Abdullah's commanded attacked an Egyptian position on top of a sheer-sided hill that was fortified with six Soviet T-54 tanks, a dozen armored cars and entrenched machine guns. The royalists advanced in a thin skirmish line and were plastered by artillery, mortars and strafing planes. They replied with rifles, one mortar with 20 rounds, and a bazooka with four rounds. The battle lasted a week and cost the Egyptians three tanks, seven armored cars and 160 dead. The Egyptians were now in positions from which they could hope to interdict the royalist movement of supplies in the mountains north and east of San'a'.
In the beginning of April the royalists held a conference with Faisal in Riyadh. They decided to adopt new tactics, including attempts to get supplies around the positions now held by the Egyptians by using camels instead of trucks to cross the mountains to reach the positions east of San'a. Camel caravans from Beihan would swing into the Rub al-Khali and enter Yemen north of Marib. It was also decided that the royalists must now strengthen their operations west of the mountains with three "armies". By the end of April, they began to recover and claimed to have regained some of the positions the Egyptians had taken in the Jawf, particularly the small but strategic towns of Barat and Safra, both in the mountains between Sadah and the Jawf, and were able to move freely in the eastern Khabt desert. In the Jawf they claimed to have cleaned up all Egyptian strong-points except Hazm, and in the west the town of Batanah.
. In two days, the attackers advanced about twelve miles, before being repelled by a counter-attack. The royalists admitted about 250 casualties. Next, the Egyptians attacked Sudah, about 100 miles north-west of San'a. They used the unpopularity of the local royalist commander to bribe several local sheiks and occupied the town unopposed. After a month, the sheiks sent delegations to al-Badr soliciting pardons and asking for guns and money with which to fight the Egyptians. Al-Badr sent new forces and managed to regain the surroundings of Sudah, though not the town itself.
On August 15, the Egyptians launched an offensive from their major north-western base in Haradh. They had 1,000 troops and about 2,000 republicans. The plan, as interpreted by British intelligence, seemed to have been to cut the thirty-mile track southward through the mountains from the Saudi border at Khoubah to al-Badr's headquarters in the Qara mountains near Washa, and then to split into two task forces, one moving east through Washa to the headquarters and the other north-eastwards along the track to the Saudi border below the Razih mountains. The Egyptians began their move on Saturday morning, moving along the Haradh and Tashar ravines. On Saturday and Sunday afteroons they were caught in heavy rain and their vehicles, including twenty tanks and about forty armored cars sank axle deep into the mud. The defenders left them alone until Monday at dawn. Al-Badr left his headquarters at three that morning with 1,000 men to direct a counter attack in the Tashar ravine, while Abdullah Hussein attacked in the Haradh ravine.
Meanwhile, the Egyptians had planned a coordinated drive from Sadah to the southwest, below the Razih mountains, hoping to link up with the force coming from Haradh. They were counting on a local sheik, whose forces were to supposed to join 250 Egyptian parachutists. The sheik failed to deliver, and the parachutists made their way back to Sadah, suffering losses from snipers on the way. Al-Badr had sent radio messages and summonses by runner in all directions calling for reinforcement. He asked reserve forces training in the Jawf to arrive in trucks mounting 55- and 57-millimeter cannon and 81 millimeter mortars and heavy machine guns. They arrived within forty-eight hours, in time to face the attackers. They outflanked the Egyptian columns, still stuck in mud in the ravines. They later announced they had knocked out ten of the Egyptian tanks and about half of their armored cars, and claimed to have shot down an Ilyushin bomber. The royalists also carried out two supporting movements. One was a raid on Jihana, in which several staff officers were killed. The second was an attempt, involving British advisors and French and Belgian mercenaries from Katanga
, to bombard San'a from a nearby mountain peak. Other diversionary operations included raids on Egyptian aircraft and tanks at the south airport of San'a and a mortar at the Egyptian and republican residence in a suburb of Taiz. Although the Egyptians managed to drive al-Badr out of his headquarters to a cave on Jabal Shedah, they could not close the Saudi border. They declared victory on the radio and on the press, but were obliged to agree to a ceasefire on the upcoming Erkwit conference on November 2.
. By that time Egypt had 40,000 troops in Yemen and had suffered an estimated 10,000 casualties. In their official communiqué the two leaders promised to 1) cooperate fully to solve the existing differences between the various factions in Yemen, 2) work together in preventing armed clashes in Yemen, and 3) reach a solution by peaceful agreement. The communiqué was widely hailed in the Arab world, and Washington called it a "statesmanlike action" and a "major step toward eventual peaceful settlement of the long civil war." Nasser and Faisal warmly embraced at Alexandria's airport and called each other "brother". Faisal said he was leaving Egypt "with my heart brimming with love for President Nasser."
On November 2, at a secret conference in Erkwit, Sudan
, the royalists and republicans declared a ceasefire effective at 1:00 PM on Monday, November 8. Tribesmen of both sides celebrated the decision until that day, and for two days after it went into effect, they fraternized at several places. On November 2 and 3, nine royalists and nine republicans, with a Saudi and an Egyptian observer, worked out the terms. A conference of 168 tribal leaders was planned for November 23. For the royalists, the conference was to become an embryo national assembly that would name a provisional national executive of two royalists, two republicans and one neutral, to administer the country provisionally and to plan a plebiscite. Until that plebiscite, which would decide whether Yemen would be a monarchy or a republic, both Sallal and al-Badr were to step aside. At the end of the two days the Egyptians resumed their bombing of royalist positions. The conference planned for November 23 was postponed to the 30th, then indefinitely. The republicans blamed the royalists for not arriving, while the royalists blamed the Egyptian bombings.
Between December 1964 and February 1965 the royalists discerned four Egyptian attempts to drive directly into the Razih mountains. The intensity of these thrusts gradually diminished, and it was estimated that the Egyptians lost 1,000 men killed, wounded and taken prisoner. Meanwhile, the royalists were building up an offensive. The Egyptian line of communications went from San'a to Amran, then Khairath, where it branched off north-eastwards to Harf. From Harf it turned due south to Farah, and then South-eastwards to Humaidat, Mutamah and Hazm. From Hazm it led south-eastwards to Marib and Harib. A military convoy went over this route twice a month. Since the royalists had closed the direct route across the mountains from San'a to Marib, the Egyptians had no other way.
The royalists under the command of Prince Mohamed's objective was to cut the Egyptians' line and force them to withdraw. They intended to take over the garrisons along this line and establish positions from which they could interdict the Egyptian movement. They had prepared the attack with the help of the Nahm tribe, who tricked the Egyptians into believing that they were their allies and would take care of the mountain pass known as Wadi Humaidat themselves. The royalist deal was that the Nahm would be entitled to loot the ambushed Egyptians. The Egyptians may have suspected something was up, as they sent a reconnaissance aircraft over the area a day before the attack. The royalists thus occupied two mountains known as Asfar and Ahmar and installed 75-Millimeter guns and mortars overlooking the Wadi. On April 15, the day after the last Egyptian convoy went through, the royalists launched a surprise attack. Both forces numbered at only a couple of thousands. The guns positioned on Asfar and Ahmar opened fire, and then the Nahm came out from behind the rocks. Finally, Prince Mohamed's troops followed. This time, the royalists' operation was fully coordinated by radio. Some of the Egyptians surrendered without resistance, others fled to Harah 800 yards to the north. Both sides brought reinforcements and the battle shifted between Harf and Hazm.
Meanwhile, Prince Abdullah bin Hassan began to raid Egyptian positions north-east of San'a at Urush, Prince Mohamed bin Mohsin was attacking the Egyptians with 500 men west of Humaidat, Prince Hassan struck out from near Sadah and Prince Hassan bin Hussein moved from Jumaat, west of Sadah, to within mortar-firing distance of the Egyptian airfield west of Sadah. Fifty Egyptians surrendered at Mutanah, near Humaidat. They were eventually allowed to evacuate to San'a with their arms. Mohamed's policy was to keep officers as prisoners for exchange, and to allow soldiers to go in return for their arms. Three to five thousand Egyptian troops in garrisons on the eastern slopes of the mountains and in the desert now had to be supplied entirely by air.
The royalist radio tried to widen the split in republican ranks by promising amnesty to all non-royalists once the Egyptians were withdrawn. Al-Badr also promised a new form of government: "a constitutionally democratic system" ruled by a "national assembly elected by the people of Yemen". At Sallal's request, Nasser provided him with ammunition and troop reinforcements by transport plane from Cairo. By August, the royalists had seven "armies", each varying in strength between 3,000 and 10,000 men, with a total somewhere between 40,000 and 60,000. There were also five or six times as many armed royal tribesmen, and the regular force under Prince Mohamed. In early June they moved into Sirwah in eastern Yemen. On June 14 they entered Qaflan and on July 16 they occupied Marib. According to official Egyptian army figures, they had 15,194 killed. The war was costing Egypt $500,000 a day. The royalists had lost an estimated 40,000 dead. In late August, Nasser decided to get the Soviets more involved in the conflict. He convinced them to cancel a $500 million debt he had incurred and provide military aid to the republicans. In early May, Sallal fired his Premier, General Hassan Amri, and appointed Ahmed Noman in his place. Noman was considered a moderate who believed in compromise. He had resigned as president of the republican Consultative Council in December in protest against Sallal's "failure to fulfill the people's aspirations". Noman's first act was to name a new 15-man Cabinet, maintaining an even balance between Yemen's two main tribal groupings, the mountain Zeidis, who are mostly royalist, and the Shafis, who are mostly republican.
By August, the war was costing Nasser $1,000,000 a day, when he arrived in Jedda harbor aboard his presidential yacht Hurriah (Freedom) to negotiate with Faisal. It was Nasser's first visit to Saudi Arabia since 1956. At the request of the Egyptians, due to assassination rumors, the banners and flags normally put up to celebrate a visiting dignitary were omitted, the sidewalks were cleared of people, and the car was a special bulletproof model. On the evening of his arrival, Nasser was welcomed at a banquet and reception for 700 guests. In less than 48 hours they reached full agreement. Once the agreement was signed, Faisal embraced Nasser and kissed him on both cheeks. The agreement provided for
, Nasser conceded that "We are facing difficulties. We must all work harder and make sacrifices. I have no magic button that I can push to produce the things you want". Premier Zakaria Mohieddin
raised Egypt's income tax, added a "defense tax" on all sales, and boosted tariffs on nonessential imports. He also hiked the cost of luxury goods 25% and set low price ceilings on most foodstuffs. He sent 400 plainclothesmen to Cairo's to arrest 150 shopkeepers for price violations. In March 1966, the Egyptian forces, now numbering almost 60,000, launched their biggest offensive. The royalists counterattacked but the stalemate resumed. Egyptian-supported groups executed sabotage bombings in Saudi Arabia.
In a speech on May Day
, 1966, Nasser said the war was entering a new phase. He launched what he called a "long-breath strategy." The plan was to pare the army from 70,000 men to 40,000, withdraw from exposed positions in eastern and northern Yemen, and tighten the hold on particular parts of Yemen: the Red Sea coastline; a northern boundary that takes in the well-fortified town of Hajja and San'a; and the border with the South Arabian Federation, which was to become independent in 1968. Nasser insisted that attacks on Najran, Qizan and other "bases of aggression" would continue, arguing that "these were originally Yemeni towns, which the Saudis usurped in 1930".
Assistant Secretary of State for the Near East and South Asia, flew in for talks with both Faisal and Nasser. In Alexandria, Nasser refused to pull out his troops, despite the risk of losing part or all of a new $150 million US food-distribution program, and another $100 million worth of industrial-development aid. Later that month, Alexei Kosygin counseled Nasser not to risk a stoppage of the U.S. Food for Peace program because Russia could not afford to pay the bill. The Russians were also willing to aid Nasser with arms and equipment in Yemen, but feared that a widening of the conflict to Saudi Arabia would lead to a "hot war" confrontation in the Middle East. Nasser was warned that "the Soviet Union would be displeased to see an attack on Saudi Arabia."
In October, Sallal's palace in San'a was shelled by a bazooka, and insurgents began targeting an Egyptian army camp outside the city and setting fire to Egyptian installations, killing a reported 70 Egyptian troops. Sallal arrested about 140 suspects, including Mohamed Ruwainy, the ex-Minister for Tribal Affairs, and Colonel Hadi Issa, former deputy chief of staff of the armed forces. Sallal accused Ruwainy and Issa of organizing a "subversive network seeking to plunge the country into terrorism and panic" and planning a campaign of assassination, financed by Saudi Arabia, Britain, Israel and the US. Ruwainy, Issa and five others were executed, while eight others received prison sentences ranging from five years to life. In February, 1967, Nasser vowed to "stay in Yemen 20 years if necessary", while Prince Hussein bin Ahmed said "We are prepared to fight for 50 years to keep Nasser out, just as we did the Ottoman Turks." Tunisia broke diplomatic relations with the republic, saying that the Sallal government no longer has power to govern the country. Sallal's chargé d'affaires in Czechoslovakia flew to Beirut and announced that he was on his way to offer his services to the royalists. Nasser said that "As the situation now stands, Arab summits are finished forever."
The first use of gas
took place on June 8, 1963 against Kawma, a village of about 100 inhabitants in northern Yemen, killing about seven people and damaging the eyes and lungs of twenty-five others. This incident is considered to have been experimental, and the bombs were described as "home-made, amateurish and relatively ineffective". The Egyptian authorities suggested that the reported incidents were probably caused by napalm
, not gas. The Israeli Foreign Minister, Golda Meir
, suggested in an interview that Nasser would not hesitate to use gas against Israel as well. There were no reports of gas during 1964, and only a few were reported in 1965. The reports grew more frequent in late 1966. On December 11, 1966, fifteen gas bombs killed two people and injured thirty-five. On January 5, 1967, the biggest gas attack came against the village of Kitaf, causing 270 casualties, including 140 fatalities. The target may have been Prince Hassan bin Yahya, who had installed his headquarters nearby. The Egyptian government denied using poison gas, and alleged that Britain and the US were using the reports as psychological warfare against Egypt. On February 12, 1967, it said it would welcome a UN investigation. On March 1, U Thant
said he was "powerless" to deal with the matter.
On May 10, the twin villages of Gahar and Gadafa in Wadi Hirran, where Prince Mohamed bin Mohsin was in command, were gas bombed, killing at least seventy-five. The Red Cross was alerted and on June 2, it issued a statement in Geneva
expressing concern. The Institute of Forensic Medicine at the University of Berne
made a statement, based on a Red Cross report, that the gas was likely to have been halogenous derivatives - phosgene
, mustard gas, lewisite
, chloride
or cyanogen bromide
. The gas attacks stopped for three weeks after the Six-Day War
of June, but resumed on July, against all parts of royalist Yemen. Casualty estimates vary, and an assumption, considered conservative, is that the mustard and phosgene-filled aerial bombs caused approximately 1,500 fatalities and 1,500 injuries.
, Nasser recalled 15,000 of his troops from Yemen. Egypt imposed higher taxes on its middle and upper classes, raised workers' compulsory monthly savings by 50%, reduced overtime pay, cut the sugar ration by a third, and curtailed practically all major industrial programs. Only military expenditures were increased, by $140 million to an estimated $1 billion. Nasser also increased the price of beer, cigarettes, long-distance bus and railroad fares and admission to movies. Egypt was losing $5,000,000 a week in revenues from the closing of the Suez Canal, on the other side of which, the Israelis were sitting on the Sinai wells that had produced half of Egypt's oil supply. Egypt's hard-currency debt was now approaching $1.5 billion and its foreign-exchange reserves were down to $100 million.
As part of the Khartoum Resolution
of August, Egypt announced that it was ready to end the war in Yemen. Egyptian Foreign Minister, Mahmoud Riad
, proposed that Egypt and Saudi Arabia revive their Jeddah Agreement of 1965. Faisal expressed satisfaction with Nasser's offer, and al-Badr promised to send his troops to fight with Egypt against Israel, should Nasser live up to the Jeddah agreement Nasser and Faisal signed a treaty under which Nasser would pull out his 20,000 troops from Yemen, Faisal would stop sending arms to al-Badr, and three neutral Arab states would send in observers. Sallal accused Nasser of betrayal. Nasser unfroze more than $100 million worth of Saudi assets in Egypt, and Faisal denationalized two Egyptian-owned banks that he had taken over earlier that year. Saudi Arabia, Libya, and Kuwait agreed to provide Egypt with an annual subsidy of $266 million, out of which $154 million was to be paid by Saudi Arabia.
Sallal's popularity among his troops declined, and after two bazooka attacks on his home by disaffected soldiers, he took Egyptian guards. He ordered the execution of his security chief, Colonel Abdel Kader Khatari, after Khatari's police fired into a mob attacking an Egyptian command post in San'a, and had refused to recognize the committee of Arab leaders appointed at Khartoum to arrange peace terms. He also fired his entire Cabinet and formed a new one, installing three army men in key ministries, and took over the army ministry and the foreign ministry for himself. Meanwhile, Nasser announced the release of three republican leaders who had been held prisoner in Egypt for more than a year, and who were in favor of peace with the royalists. The three were Qadi Abdul Rahman Iryani, Ahmed Noman and General Amri. When Sallal met with Nasser in Cairo in early November, Nasser advised him to resign and go into exile. Sallal refused and went to Baghdad, hoping to get support from other Arab Socialists. As soon as he left Cairo, Nasser sent a cable to San'a, instructing his troops there not to block an attempt at a coup.
On November 5, Yemeni dissidents, supported by republican tribesmen called down to San'a, moved four tanks into the city's dusty squares, took over the Presidential Palace and announced over the government radio station that Sallal had been removed "from all positions of authority". The coup went unopposed. In Baghdad, Sallal asked for political asylum, saying "every revolutionary must anticipate obstacles and difficult situations". The Iraqi government offered him a home and a monthly grant of 500 dinars.
The new republican government was headed by Qadi Abdul Rahman Iryani, Ahmed Noman and Mohamed Ali Uthman. The Prime Minister was Mohsin al-Aini. Noman, however, remained in Beirut. He was doubtful of his colleagues reluctance to negotiate with the Hamidaddin family, preferring to expel it instead. On November 23, he resigned, and his place was taken by Hassan Amri. Prince Mohamed bin Hussein told the country's chiefs "We have money, and you will have your share if you join us. If not, we will go on without you". The chiefs agreed to mobilize their tribes. 6,000 royalist regulars and 50,000 armed tribesmen known as "the Fighting Rifles" surrounded San'a, captured its main airport and severed the highway to the port of Hodeida, a main route for Russian supplies. In a battle twelve miles east of the capital, 3,200 soldiers of both sides were killed, and an entire republican regiment reportedly deserted to the royalists. Bin Hussein gave them an ultimatum: "Surrender the city or be annihilated". Iryani went to Cairo for what the Egyptian official press agency called "a medical checkup". Foreign Minister Hassan Macky also left Yemen, leaving the government in charge of Amri. Amri declared a 6 p.m. curfew and ordered civilians to form militia units "to defend the republic". In Liberation Square, six suspected royalist infiltrators were publicly executed by a firing squad, and their bodies were later strung up on poles.
The republicans boasted a new air force, while the royalists claimed to have shot down a MiG-17 fighter with a Russian pilot. The US State Department said that this claim, as well as reports of twenty-four MiGs and forty Soviet technicians and pilots who had arrived in Yemen, were correct. In January, the republicans were defending San'a with about 2,000 regulars and tribesmen, plus armed townsmen and about ten tanks. They also had the backing of a score or more fighter aircraft piloted by Russians or Yemenis who passed a crash course in the Soviet Union. The city could still feed itself from the immediately surrounding countryside. Between 4,000 and 5,000 royalists suffered from republican air power, but had the advantage of high ground. However, they did not have enough ammunition, as the Saudis had halted arms deliveries after the Khartoum agreement and stopped financing the royalists after December.
, which had now become South Yemen. The royalists remained active until 1970. Talks between the two sides commenced while the fighting went on. The Foreign Minister, Hassan Makki, said "Better years of talk than a day of fighting". In 1970, Saudi Arabia recognized the Republic, and a ceasefire was effected. The Saudis gave the republic a grant of $20 million, which was later repeated intermittently, and Yemeni sheiks received Saudi stipends. By 1971, both Egypt and Saudi Arabia had disengaged from Yemen. South Yemen formed a connection with the Soviet Union. In September 1971, Amri resigned after murdering a photographer in San'a, and more power was given to Iryani, the effective President. By then, the royalists were integrated into the new republic, except for al-Badr's family, and a consultative Council was established. Clashes along the border between the states rose, and in 1972 a small war broke.
After the war, the tribes were better represented in the republican government. In 1969 sheiks were brought into the National Assembly and in 1971 into the Consultative Council. Under Iryani, the sheiks, particularly the ones who fought for the republicans and were close to the mediation attempt. By the end of the war there was a breach between the older and more liberal politicians and republican sheiks, and certain army sheiks and activists from South Yemen. In the summer of 1972 a border war broke and ended with a declaration from both North Yemen and South Yemen that they would reunite, but they did not. There were complaints in North Yemen about foreign influence by Saudi Arabia.
North Yemen
North Yemen is a term currently used to designate the Yemen Arab Republic , its predecessor, the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen , and their predecessors that exercised sovereignty over the territory that is now the north-western part of the state of Yemen in southern Arabia.Neither state ever...
between royalists of the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen
Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen
The Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen , sometimes spelled Mutawakelite Kingdom of Yemen, also known as the Kingdom of Yemen or as North Yemen, was a country from 1918 to 1962 in the northern part of what is now Yemen...
and factions of the Yemen Arab Republic
Yemen Arab Republic
The Yemen Arab Republic , also known as North Yemen or Yemen , was a country from 1962 to 1990 in the western part of what is now Yemen...
from 1962 to 1970. The war began with a coup d'état
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
carried out by the republican leader, Abdullah as-Sallal
Abdullah as-Sallal
Abdullah al-Sallal was the leader of the North Yemeni Revolution of 1962. He served as the first President of the Yemen Arab Republic from 27 September 1962 to 5 November 1967....
, which dethroned the newly crowned Imam al-Badr and declared Yemen a republic under his presidency. The Imam escaped to the Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
n border and rallied popular support.
On the royalist side Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
and Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
supplied military aid, and Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
gave diplomatic support, while the republicans were supported by Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
and allegedly received warplanes from the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
.
Both foreign irregular and conventional forces were involved. The Egyptian President
President of Egypt
The President of the Arab Republic of Egypt is the head of state of Egypt.Under the Constitution of Egypt, the president is also the supreme commander of the armed forces and head of the executive branch of the Egyptian government....
, Gamal Abdel Nasser
Gamal Abdel Nasser
Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein was the second President of Egypt from 1956 until his death. A colonel in the Egyptian army, Nasser led the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 along with Muhammad Naguib, the first president, which overthrew the monarchy of Egypt and Sudan, and heralded a new period of...
, supported the republicans with as many as 70,000 Egyptian troops. Despite several military moves and peace conferences, the war sank into a stalemate. Egypt's commitment to the war is considered to have been detrimental to its performance in the Six-Day War
Six-Day War
The Six-Day War , also known as the June War, 1967 Arab-Israeli War, or Third Arab-Israeli War, was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967, by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt , Jordan, and Syria...
of June 1967, after which Nasser found it increasingly difficult to maintain his army's involvement and began to pull his forces out of Yemen.
By 1970, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia
Faisal of Saudi Arabia
Faisal bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud was King of Saudi Arabia from 1964 to 1975. As king, he is credited with rescuing the country's finances and implementing a policy of modernization and reform, while his main foreign policy themes were pan-Islamic Nationalism, anti-Communism, and pro-Palestinian...
recognized the republic after al- Badr refused to cede Najran, Jizan and Aseer to Saudi Arabia in return of continued aid, his famous response was "Their people are the most worthy of it" and sensing the willingness of the coup forces to cede those lands to the Saudis a truce was signed. Egyptian military historians refer to the war in Yemen as their Vietnam, and historian Michael Oren
Michael Oren
Michael B. Oren is an American-born Israeli historian and author and the Israeli ambassador to the United States...
(current Israeli Ambassador to the U.S) wrote that Egypt's military adventure in Yemen was so disastrous that "the imminent Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
could easily have been dubbed America's Yemen."
Yemen
Imam Ahmad bin YahyaAhmad bin Yahya
Ahmad bin Yahya Hamidaddin was the penultimate king of the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen from 1948 to 1962. His full name and title was H.M. al-Nasir-li-din Allah Ahmad bin al-Mutawakkil 'Ala Allah Yahya, Imam and Commander of the Faithful, and King of the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of the Yemen...
, who had inherited the Yemeni throne in 1948, was known as "Ahmad the devil" by his enemies. In 1955, Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
-trained Colonel Ahmad Thalaya led a revolt against him. A group of soldiers under his command surrounded the royal palace of Al Urdhi at Taiz, a fortified stronghold where the Imam lived with his harem, the royal treasure, an arsenal of modern weapons, and a 150 strong palace-guard, and demanded Ahmad's abdication. Ahmad agreed, but demanded that his son, Imam al-Badr succeed him. Thalaya refused, preferring the King's half brother, the Emir Saif el Islam Abdullah, the 48-year-old Foreign Minister. While Abdullah began forming a new government, Ahmad opened the treasury coffers and secretly began buying off the besieging soldiers. After five days, the number of besiegers was reduced from 600 to 40. Ahmad then came out of the palace,wearing a devil's mask and wielding a long scimitar, terrifying the beseigers. He slashed two sentries dead before exchanging the sword for a sub-machine gun and leading his 150 guards onto the roof of the palace to begin a direct attack on the rebels. After 28 hours, 23 rebels and one palace guard were dead and Thalaya gave up. Abdullah was later reported executed, and Thalaya was publicly decapitated.
Damascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...
to tell Nasser of Yemen's adherence to the UAR
UAR
UAR may refer to:* United Arab Republic, the state formed by the union of the republics of Egypt and Syria in 1958. It existed until Syria's secession in 1961, although Egypt continued to be known as the UAR until 1971....
. However, Ahmad was to keep his throne and his absolute power, and the arrangement constituted only a close alliance. In 1959 Ahmad went to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
to treat his arthritis, rheumatism, heart trouble and, reportedly, drug addiction. Fights between tribal chieftains erupted, and al-Badr unsuccessfully tried to buy off the dissidents by promising "reforms", including the appointment of a representative council, more army pay and promotions. Upon his return, Ahmad swore to crush the "agents of the Christians". He ordered the decapitation of one of his subjects and the amputation of the left hand and right foot of 15 others, in punishment for the murder of a high official the previous June. Al-Badr was only rebuked for his leniency, but the Yemeni radio stopped broadcasting army officers' speeches, and talks of reforms were silenced.
In June 1961, Ahmad was still recovering from an assassination attempt four months earlier, and moved out of the capital, Taiz, into the pleasure palace of Sala
Sala
- Geography :* Sala Municipality, Sweden - a municipality in Sweden* Sala, Sweden - a city in Sweden, seat of Sala Municipality* Sala municipality, Latvia - a municipality in Latvia* Sala, Latvia - a village in Latvia, an administrative centre of Sala municipality...
. Already Defense and Foreign Minister, Badr became acting Prime Minister and Interior Minister as well. Despite being Crown Prince, al-Badr still needed to be picked by the Ulema
Ulema
Ulama , also spelt ulema, refers to the educated class of Muslim legal scholars engaged in the several fields of Islamic studies. They are best known as the arbiters of shari‘a law...
in San'a. Al-Badr was not popular with the Ulema due to his association with Nasser, and the Ulema had refused Ahmad's request to ratify Badr's title. Imam Ahmad died on September 18, 1962, and was succeeded by his son, Imam al-Badr. One of al-Badr's first acts was to appoint Colonel Abdullah Sallal, a known socialist and Nasserist, as commander of the palace guard.
Egypt
Anthony Nutting
Sir Harold Anthony Nutting, 3rd Baronet was a British diplomat and Conservative Party politician.-Early and private life:...
's biography of Gamal Abdel-Nasser identifies several factors that led the Egyptian President to send expeditionary forces to Yemen. These included the unraveling of the union with Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
in 1961, which dissolved his United Arab Republic
United Arab Republic
The United Arab Republic , often abbreviated as the U.A.R., was a sovereign union between Egypt and Syria. The union began in 1958 and existed until 1961, when Syria seceded from the union. Egypt continued to be known officially as the "United Arab Republic" until 1971. The President was Gamal...
(UAR), damaging his prestige. A quick decisive victory in Yemen could help him recover leadership of the Arab world
Arab world
The Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...
. Nasser also had his reputation as an anti-colonial force, setting his sights on ridding South Yemen, and its strategic port city of Aden
Aden
Aden is a seaport city in Yemen, located by the eastern approach to the Red Sea , some 170 kilometres east of Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000. Aden's ancient, natural harbour lies in the crater of an extinct volcano which now forms a peninsula, joined to the mainland by a...
, of British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
forces.
Mohamed Heikal
Mohamed Hassanein Heikal
Mohamed Hassanein Heikal is a leading Egyptian journalist. For 17 years he was editor-in-chief of the Cairo newspaper Al-Ahram and has been a respected commentator on Arab affairs for more than 50 years.-Background and Books:...
, a chronicler of Egyptian national policy decision making and confidant of Nasser, wrote in For Egypt Not For Nasser, that he had engaged Nasser on the subject of supporting the coup in Yemen. Heikal argued that Sallal's revolution could not absorb the massive number of Egyptian personnel who would arrive in Yemen to prop up his regime, and that it would be wise to consider sending Arab nationalist volunteers from throughout the Middle East to fight alongside the republican Yemeni forces, suggesting the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
as a template from which to conduct events in Yemen. Nasser refused Heikal's ideas, insisting on the need to protect the Arab nationalist movement. Nasser was convinced that a regiment of Egyptian Special Forces and a wing of fighter-bomber
Fighter-bomber
A fighter-bomber is a fixed-wing aircraft with an intended primary role of light tactical bombing and also incorporating certain performance characteristics of a fighter aircraft. This term, although still used, has less significance since the introduction of rockets and guided missiles into aerial...
s would be able to secure the Yemeni republican coup d'état
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
.
Nasser's considerations for sending troops to Yemen may have included the following: (1) impact of his support to the Algerian War of Independence
Algerian War of Independence
The Algerian War was a conflict between France and Algerian independence movements from 1954 to 1962, which led to Algeria's gaining its independence from France...
from 1954–62; (2) Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
breaking up from Nasser's United Arab Republic
United Arab Republic
The United Arab Republic , often abbreviated as the U.A.R., was a sovereign union between Egypt and Syria. The union began in 1958 and existed until 1961, when Syria seceded from the union. Egypt continued to be known officially as the "United Arab Republic" until 1971. The President was Gamal...
(UAR) in 1961; (3) taking advantage of a breach in British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and French relations, which had been strained by Nasser's support for the FLN
FLN
FLN may refer to:* One of a number of organisations named National Liberation Front* The National Liberation Front * The National Liberation Front * The National Liberation Front of Chad...
in Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
and primarily for his efforts to undermine the Central Treaty Organization
Central Treaty Organization
The Central Treaty Organization was formed in 1955 by Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. It was dissolved in 1979.U.S...
(CENTO), which caused the downfall of the Iraqi monarchy in 1958; (4) confronting imperialism
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
, which Nasser saw as Egypt's destiny; (5) guaranteeing dominance of the Red Sea
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
from the Suez Canal
Suez Canal
The Suez Canal , also known by the nickname "The Highway to India", is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869 after 10 years of construction work, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigation...
to the Bab-el-Mandeb
Bab-el-Mandeb
The Bab-el-Mandeb meaning "Gate of Grief" in Arabic , is a strait located between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula, Djibouti and Eritrea, north of Somalia, in the Horn of Africa, and connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden...
strait; (6) retribution against the Saudi royal family, whom Nasser felt had undermined his union with Syria.
Plot
Chargé d'affaires
In diplomacy, chargé d’affaires , often shortened to simply chargé, is the title of two classes of diplomatic agents who head a diplomatic mission, either on a temporary basis or when no more senior diplomat has been accredited.-Chargés d’affaires:Chargés d’affaires , who were...
, Abdul Wahad, and al-Badr himself. The day after Ahmad's death, al-Badr's minister in London, Ahmad al Shami, sent him a telegram urging him not to go to San'a to attend his father's funeral because several Egyptian officers, as well as some of his own, were plotting against him. Al-Badr's private secretary did not pass this message to him, pretending he did not understand the code. Al-Badr may have been saved by the gathering of thousands of men at the funeral. Al-Badr learned of the telegram only later.
A day before the coup Wahad, who claimed to have information from the Egyptian intelligence service, warned al-Badr that Sallal and fifteen other officers, including Moghny, were planning a revolution. Wahad's purpose was to cover himself and Egypt in case the coup failed, to prompt the plotters into immediate action, and drive Sallal and Moghny into a single conspiracy. Sallal got imamic permission to bring in the armed forces. Then, Wahad went to Moghny, and told him that al-Badr had somehow discovered the plot, and that he must act immediately before the other officers would be arrested. He told him that if he could hold San'a, the radio and the airport for three days, the whole of Europe would recognize him.
Sallal ordered that the military academy in San'a go on full alert — opening all armories and issuing weapons to all junior officers and troops. On the evening of September 25, Sallal gathered known leaders of the Yemeni nationalist movement and other officers who had sympathized or participated in the military protests of 1955. Each officer and cell would be given orders and would commence as soon as the shelling of al-Badr's palace began. Key areas that would be secured included Al-Bashaer palace (al-Badr's palace); Al-Wusul palace (Reception area for dignitaries); The radio station; The telephone exchange; Qasr al-Silaah (The Main Armory); and The central security headquarters (Intelligence
Intelligence (information gathering)
Intelligence assessment is the development of forecasts of behaviour or recommended courses of action to the leadership of an organization, based on a wide range of available information sources both overt and covert. Assessments are developed in response to requirements declared by the leadership...
and Internal Security).
Execution
At 10:30 p.m., al-Badr heard tanks moving through the nearby streets, and reckoned that they were the ones Sallal had asked to move. At 11.45 p.m. the army began shelling the palace. Al-Badr seized a machine gun and began firing at the tanks, although they were out of range. Moghny sent an armored car to Sallal's house and invited him to the headquarters, where he asked him to join the revolution. Sallal agreed, on condition that he would be President. Moghny agreed. The coup d'état was carried out with 13 tanks from the Badr Brigade, six armored cars, two mobile artillery cannons, and two anti-air guns. Command and control of the forces loyal to the coup would take place at the Military Academy. A unit of revolutionary officers accompanied by tanks headed towards Al-Bashaer Palace. By microphone, they voiced an appeal to the imamate Guard for tribal solidarity and to surrender Imam al-Badr, who would be sent peacefully into exile. The imamate Guard refused to surrender and opened fire, prompting the revolutionary leaders to respond with tank and artillery shells. The rebels planned to deploy tanks and artillery in the coup.The battle at the palace continued until guards surrendered to the revolutionaries the following morning. The radio station was first to fall, secured after a loyalist officer was killed and resistance collapsed. The armory was perhaps the easiest target, as a written order from Sallal was sufficient to open the storage facility, beat the royalists, and secure rifles, artillery and ammunition for the resistance. The telephone exchange likewise fell without any resistance. At the Al-Wusul Palace, revolutionary units remained secure under the guise of granting and protecting diplomats and dignitaries staying there to greet the new Imam of Yemen. By late morning on September 26, all areas of San'a were secure and the radio broadcast that Imam al-Badr had been overthrown by the new revolutionary government in power. Revolutionary cells in the cities of Taiz, Al-Hujja and the port city of Hodeida then began securing arsenals, airports and port facilities.
Aftermath
Egyptian General Ali Abdul Hameed was dispatched by plane, and arrived on September 29 to assess the situation and needs of the Yemeni Revolutionary Command Council. Egypt sent a battalion of Special Forces (Saaqah) on a mission to act as personal guards for Sallal. They arrived at Hodeida on October 5. Fifteen days after he had left San'a, al-Badr sent a man ahead to the Saudi Arabia to announce that he was alive. He then went there himself, crossing the border near Khobar
Khobar
Khobar is a large city located in the Eastern Province of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on the Persian Gulf. It has a population of 360,000 and forms part of the greater Dammam metropolitan area along with Dhahran, which together have a combined population of over two million...
, at the north-western edge of the kingdom.
Diplomacy
Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
, fearing Nasserist
Nasserism
Nasserism is an Arab nationalist political ideology based on the thinking of the former Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser. It was a major influence on pan-Arab politics in the 1950s and 1960s, and continues to have significant resonance throughout the Arab World to this day. It also...
encroachment, moved troops along its border with Yemen, as the Jordanian monarch dispatched his Army chief of staff for discussions with al-Badr's uncle, Prince Hassan. Between October 2–8 four Saudi cargo planes left Saudi Arabia loaded with arms and military material for Yemeni royalist tribesmen; however, the pilots defected to Aswan
Aswan
Aswan , formerly spelled Assuan, is a city in the south of Egypt, the capital of the Aswan Governorate.It stands on the east bank of the Nile at the first cataract and is a busy market and tourist centre...
. Ambassadors from Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Washington D.C. and Amman
Amman
Amman is the capital of Jordan. It is the country's political, cultural and commercial centre and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. The Greater Amman area has a population of 2,842,629 as of 2010. The population of Amman is expected to jump from 2.8 million to almost...
supported the Imam while ambassadors from Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
, Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
and Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
declared support for the republican revolution. The USSR was the first nation to recognize the new republic, and Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
cabled Sallal: "Any act of aggression against Yemen will be considered an act of aggression against the Soviet Union."
The United States was concerned that the conflict might spread to other parts of the Middle East. President John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
rushed off notes to Nasser, Feisal, Hussein and Sallal. His plan was that Nasser's troops should withdraw from Yemen while Saudi Arabia and Jordan halted their aid to the Imam. Nasser agreed to pull out his forces only after Jordan and Saudi Arabia "stop all aggressive operations on the frontiers". Feisal and Hussein rejected Kennedy's plan, since it would involve US recognition of the "rebels". They insisted that the US should withhold recognition of Sallal's Presidency since the Imam might still regain control of Yemen, and that Nasser had no intention of pulling out. The Saudis argued that Nasser wanted their oil fields and was hoping to use Yemen as a springboard for revolt in the rest of the Arabian peninsula. King Hussein of Jordan
Hussein of Jordan
Hussein bin Talal was the third King of Jordan from the abdication of his father, King Talal, in 1952, until his death. Hussein's rule extended through the Cold War and four decades of Arab-Israeli conflict...
was also convinced that Nasser's target was Saudi Arabia's oil, and that if the Saudis went, he would be next.
Sallal declared "I warn America that if it does not recognize the Yemen Arab Republic, I shall not recognize it!". US Chargé d'Affaires
Chargé d'affaires
In diplomacy, chargé d’affaires , often shortened to simply chargé, is the title of two classes of diplomatic agents who head a diplomatic mission, either on a temporary basis or when no more senior diplomat has been accredited.-Chargés d’affaires:Chargés d’affaires , who were...
in Taiz, Robert Stookey, reported that the republican regime was in full control of the country, except in some border areas. However, the British government was insisting on the strength of the Imam's tribal support. A letter written by President Kennedy to Faisal dated October 25, which was kept confidential until January 1963, said: "You may be assured of full US support for the maintenance of Saudi Arabian integrity". American jet aircraft twice staged shows of force in Saudi Arabia. The first involved six F-100
F-100 Super Sabre
The North American F-100 Super Sabre was a supersonic jet fighter aircraft that served with the United States Air Force from 1954 to 1971 and with the Air National Guard until 1979. The first of the Century Series collection of USAF jet fighters, it was the first USAF fighter capable of...
jets staging stunt-flying demonstrations over Riyadh
Riyadh
Riyadh is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of Riyadh Province, and belongs to the historical regions of Najd and Al-Yamama. It is situated in the center of the Arabian Peninsula on a large plateau, and is home to 5,254,560 people, and the urban center of a...
and Jeddah
Jeddah
Jeddah, Jiddah, Jidda, or Jedda is a city located on the coast of the Red Sea and is the major urban center of western Saudi Arabia. It is the largest city in Makkah Province, the largest sea port on the Red Sea, and the second largest city in Saudi Arabia after the capital city, Riyadh. The...
; on the second, two jet bombers and a giant jet transport, while returning to their base near Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
after a visit to Karachi
Karachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...
, Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, put on a demonstration over Riyadh.
Sallal proclaimed Yemen's "firm policy to honor its international obligations", including a 1934 treaty pledging respect for Britain's Aden Protectorate
Aden Protectorate
The Aden Protectorate was a British protectorate in southern Arabia which evolved in the hinterland of Aden following the acquisition of that port by Britain in 1839 as an anti-piracy station, and it continued until the 1960s. For administrative purposes it was divided into the Western...
. Nasser promised to "start gradual withdrawal" of its 18,000-man force, "provided Saudi and Jordanian forces also retire from border regions", but would leave his technicians and advisers behind. On December 19, the US became the 34th nation to recognize the Yemen Arab Republic. United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
recognition followed that of the US by a day. The UN continued to consider the republic the only authority in the land and completely ignored the royalists.
Britain, with its commitment to South Arabia and its base in Aden, considered the Egyptian invasion a real threat. Recognition of the republic posed a problem to several treaties Britain had signed with the sheiks and sultans of the South Arabian Federation. Saudi Arabia urged the British to identify themselves with the royalists. On the other hand, there were some in the British Foreign Office who believed Britain could buy security for Aden by recognizing the republic. However, Britain eventually decided not to recognize. Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
and most of western Europe also withheld recognition. The republic did receive the recognition of West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
, Italy, Canada and Australia, as well as the remaining Arab governments, Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
and the entire communist bloc.
A week after the American recognition, Sallal boasted at a military parade the republic had rockets that could strike "the palaces of Saudi Arabia", and in early January the Egyptians again bombed and strafed Najran
Najran
Najran , formerly known as Aba as Sa'ud, is a city in southwestern Saudi Arabia near the border with Yemen. It is the capital of Najran Province. Designated a New town, Najran is one of the fastest-growing cities in the kingdom; its population has risen from 47,500 in 1974 and 90,983 in 1992 to...
, a Saudi Arabian city near the Yemenite border. The US responded with another aerial demonstration over Jeddah and a destroyer joined on January 15. The US reportedly agreed to send antiaircraft batteries and radar-control equipment to Najran. In addition, Ralph Bunche
Ralph Bunche
Ralph Johnson Bunche or 1904December 9, 1971) was an American political scientist and diplomat who received the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize for his late 1940s mediation in Palestine. He was the first person of color to be so honored in the history of the Prize...
was sent to Yemen, where he met with Sallal and Egyptian Field Marshal Abdel Hakim Amer
Abdel Hakim Amer
Mohamed Abdel Hakim Amer was an Egyptian general and political leader. Born in Astal, Samallot, in the Al Minya Governorate in 1919, he served in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, took part in the 1952 Revolution and commanded the Egyptian Army in the Suez Crisis, the North Yemen Civil War and the...
. On March 6 Bunche was in Cairo, where Nasser reportedly assured him that he would withdraw his troops from Yemen if the Saudis would stop supporting the royalists.
Operation Hard-surface
While Bunche was reporting to UN Secretary-General U ThantU Thant
U Thant was a Burmese diplomat and the third Secretary-General of the United Nations, from 1961 to 1971. He was chosen for the post when his predecessor, Dag Hammarskjöld, died in September 1961....
, the United States Department of State
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
sought the help of ambassador Ellsworth Bunker
Ellsworth Bunker
Ellsworth F. Bunker was an American businessman and diplomat...
. His mission was based on a decision made by the National Security Council
United States National Security Council
The White House National Security Council in the United States is the principal forum used by the President of the United States for considering national security and foreign policy matters with his senior national security advisors and Cabinet officials and is part of the Executive Office of the...
, which was conceived by McGeorge Bundy
McGeorge Bundy
McGeorge "Mac" Bundy was United States National Security Advisor to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson from 1961 through 1966, and president of the Ford Foundation from 1966 through 1979...
and Robert Komer
Robert Komer
Robert William "Blowtorch Bob" Komer was a key figure in the pacification effort to win South Vietnamese "hearts and minds" during the Vietnam War, heading Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support....
. The idea behind what became known as "Operation Hard-surface" was to trade American protection (or the appearance of it) for a Saudi commitment to halt aid to the royalists, on the basis of which the Americans would get Nasser to withdraw his troops. The operation would consist of "eight little planes."
Bunker arrived in Riyadh on March 6. Faisal refused Bunker's offer, which was also hitched to pledges of reform. The original instructions for Operation Hard-surface were that American planes would "attack and destroy" any intruders over Saudi air space, but were later changed to read that the Saudis could defend themselves if attacked. Bunker evidently stuck to the original formula and stressed that if only Faisal would halt his aid to the royalists, the US would be able pressure Nasser to withdraw. Faisal eventually accepted the offer, and Bunker went on to meet with Nasser in Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
, where the Egyptian President repeated the assurance he had given Bunche.
The Bunche and Bunker mission gave birth to the idea of an observer mission to Yemen, which eventually became the United Nations Yemen Observation Mission
United Nations Yemen Observation Mission
The UN Yemen Observation Mission was established in 1963.Yemen entered into a state of civil war in 1962. Yemen had joined Egypt in 1958, and then in 1962, separated again, sparking the conflict....
. The U.N. observer team, which would be set up by the former UN Congo
Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville)
The Republic of the Congo was an independent republic established following the independence granted to the former colony of the Belgian Congo in 1960...
commander, Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
Major General Carl von Horn. His disengagement agreement called for (1) Establishment of a demilitarized zone extending twenty kilometers on either side of a demarcated Saudi Arabian Yemen border, from which all military equipment was to be excluded; (2) Stationing of UN observers within this zone on both sides of the border to observe, report and prevent any continued attempt by the Saudis to supply royalist forces.
On April 30, von Horn was sent to discover what kind of force was required. A few days later, he met with Amer in Cairo and found out that Egypt had no intention of drawing all her troops from Yemen. After a few more days, he was told by the Saudi deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Omar Saqqaff, that the Saudis would not accept any attempt by Egypt to leave security forces after their withdrawal. Saudi Arabia had already been cutting back on its support to the royalists, in part because Egypt's projected plan for unity with Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
and Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
made Nasser seem too dangerous. By that time, the war cost Egypt $1,000,000 a day and nearly 5,000 casualties. Though promising to remove her troops, Egypt had the privilege of leaving an unspecified number for the "training" of Yemen's republican army.
In June, von Horn went to San'a, unsuccessfully trying to achieve the objective of 1) ending Saudi aid to the royalists, 2) creating a 25-mile demilitarized strip along the Saudi border, and 3) supervising the phased withdrawal of the Egyptian troops. In September, von Horn cabled his resignation to Thant, who announced that the mission would continue, due to "oral assurances" by Egypt and Saudi Arabia to continue financing it. The number of Egyptian troops increased, and in the end of January, the "Hard-surface" squadron was withdrawn after a wrangle with Faisal. On September 4, 1964, the UN admitted failure and withdrew its mission.
Royalists
Bruce Conde
Bruce Conde was a US Army officer, stamp collector, royal pretender, and a general for Royalist forces during the North Yemen Civil War.-Early years:...
, who set up the post office and would later rise to the rank of general in the Royalist forces.
In 1963, the Saudis spent $15 million to equip royalist tribes, hire hundreds of European mercenaries, and establish their own radio station. Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, which saw a chance to make money in the conflict, extended rifles to the royalists. Remnants of the Imam's Army also had elements of the Saudi National Guard fight alongside its ranks. Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
subsidized royalist forces on and off, as the Shah
Shah
Shāh is the title of the ruler of certain Southwest Asian and Central Asian countries, especially Persia , and derives from the Persian word shah, meaning "king".-History:...
felt compelled to provide al-Badr (a Shiite Zeidi) with financing. The British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
allowed convoys of arms to flow through one of its allies in Northern Yemen, the Sheriff of Beijan, who was protected by the British administration in Aden
Aden
Aden is a seaport city in Yemen, located by the eastern approach to the Red Sea , some 170 kilometres east of Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000. Aden's ancient, natural harbour lies in the crater of an extinct volcano which now forms a peninsula, joined to the mainland by a...
. British military planes conduced night operations to resupply al-Badr's forces. The MI6 was responsible for contacting the royalists, and used the services of a private company belonging to Colonel David Stirling
David Stirling
Colonel Sir Archibald David Stirling, DSO, DFC, OBE was a Scottish laird, mountaineer, World War II British Army officer, and the founder of the Special Air Service.-Life before the war:...
, founder of the Special Air Service
Special Air Service
Special Air Service or SAS is a corps of the British Army constituted on 31 May 1950. They are part of the United Kingdom Special Forces and have served as a model for the special forces of many other countries all over the world...
(SAS), who recruited dozens of former SAS men as advisors to the royalists. Britain participated in a $400 million British air defense program for Saudi Arabia. The Lyndon Johnson administration was more willing than Kennedy's to support long-range plans in support of the Saudi army. In 1965, the US authorized an agreement with the Corps of Engineers
United States Army Corps of Engineers
The United States Army Corps of Engineers is a federal agency and a major Army command made up of some 38,000 civilian and military personnel, making it the world's largest public engineering, design and construction management agency...
to supervise the construction of military facilities and in 1966 it sponsored a $100 million program which provided the Saudi forces with combat vehicles, mostly trucks. Faisal also initiated an Islamic alignment called the Islamic Conference, to counter Nasser's Arab socialism
Arab socialism
Arab socialism is a political ideology based on an amalgamation of Pan-Arabism and socialism. Arab socialism is distinct from the much broader tradition of socialist thought in the Arab world, which predates Arab socialism by as much as fifty years...
.
Al-Badr had formed two royalist armies - one under his uncle Prince Hassan in the east and one under his own control in the west. Both armies controlled most of the north and east of Yemen, including the towns of Harib and Marib. The provincial capital of Northern Yemen, Sadah, which would have given the Imam a key strategic road towards the main capital San'a, was controlled by the republicans. There were also areas like the town of Hajjah
Hajjah
Hajjah is the capital city of Hajjah Governorate in northwestern Yemen. It is located 127 kilometres northwest of Sana'a, at an elevation of about 1800 metres. As of 2003, the Hajjah City District had a population of 53,887 inhabitants....
, where the royalists controlled the mountains while the Egyptians and republicans controlled the town and fortress. Mercenaries
Mercenary
A mercenary, is a person who takes part in an armed conflict based on the promise of material compensation rather than having a direct interest in, or a legal obligation to, the conflict itself. A non-conscript professional member of a regular army is not considered to be a mercenary although he...
from France, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
and England, who had fought in Rhodesia
Rhodesia
Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...
, Malaya
Malay Peninsula
The Malay Peninsula or Thai-Malay Peninsula is a peninsula in Southeast Asia. The land mass runs approximately north-south and, at its terminus, is the southern-most point of the Asian mainland...
, Indochina
Indochina
The Indochinese peninsula, is a region in Southeast Asia. It lies roughly southwest of China, and east of India. The name has its origins in the French, Indochine, as a combination of the names of "China" and "India", and was adopted when French colonizers in Vietnam began expanding their territory...
and Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
, were sent to assist the Imam in planning, training and giving the irregular forces the ability to communicate with one another and the Saudis. They trained tribesmen in the use of antitank weapons
Anti-tank warfare
Anti-tank warfare was created by the need to seek technology and tactics to destroy tanks and their supporting infantry during the First World War...
, such as the 106mm gun and in mining techniques. The numbers of mercenaries are estimated in the hundreds, although Egyptian sources at the time reported 15,000. Royalist tactics were confined to guerilla warfare, isolating conventional Egyptian and republican forces, and conducting attacks on supply lines.
Mossad
The Mossad , short for HaMossad leModi'in uleTafkidim Meyuchadim , is the national intelligence agency of Israel....
director, Shabtai Shavit
Shabtai Shavit
Shabtai Shavit was the Director General of the Mossad from 1989 to 1996.Shavit first joined the Israel Defense Forces, where he served in the Sayeret Matkal and from 1958 to 1959 he was the Military Governor of the Southern Command...
, and Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon is an Israeli statesman and retired general, who served as Israel’s 11th Prime Minister. He has been in a permanent vegetative state since suffering a stroke on 4 January 2006....
both said Israel had been clandestinely involved in Yemen. Some of the royalist air drops were aided by the Israeli Air Force
Israeli Air Force
The Israeli Air Force is the air force of the State of Israel and the aerial arm of the Israel Defense Forces. It was founded on May 28, 1948, shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Independence...
(IAF). The aircraft were contracted privately to the British mercenary operation and were either using Israeli air bases or Israeli transport planes themselves making the drops.
According to "Haaretz" newspaper, one of the SAS advisers, Tony Boyle, contacted David Karon, the head of the Middle East department in the Tevel (Cosmos) section of the Mossad, and met with IAF commander Ezer Weizman
Ezer Weizman
' was the seventh President of Israel, first elected in 1993 and re-elected in 1998. Before the presidency, Weizman was commander of the Israeli Air Force and Minister of Defense.-Biography:...
and his officers. It was decided that the airdrops would be made. The Israeli aircraft flew along the Saudi coastline. The Saudis did not have radar systems, and would later claim they were not aware of the airlifts. The Israeli planes would make the drops and then refuel in French Somaliland
French Somaliland
French Somaliland was a French colony in the Horn of Africa. Established after the French signed various treaties between 1883 and 1887 with the then ruling Somali Sultans, the colony lasted from 1896 until 1946, when it became an overseas territory of France....
(now Djibouti
Djibouti
Djibouti , officially the Republic of Djibouti , is a country in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Eritrea in the north, Ethiopia in the west and south, and Somalia in the southeast. The remainder of the border is formed by the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden at the east...
) and return to Israel. The airlifts were originally codenamed "Operation Gravy", but were later renamed "Operation Porcupine". The IAF's largest transport plane, the Stratofreighter, was recruited for the operation. The first flight took off in March 1964 from Tel Nof Airbase
Tel Nof Airbase
Tel Nof Israeli Air Force , also known as Air Force Base 8, is one of three principal airbases of the Israeli Air Force. Tel Nof is located near Rehovot, Israel.-History:...
. During the sixth flight, Boyle suggested that the IAF would also bomb San'a. Weizman supported the idea and plans were made, but the Israel Defense Forces
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...
Chief of Staff (Ramatkal
Ramatkal
The Chief of the General Staff, also known as the Commander-in-Chief of the Israel Defense Forces is the supreme commander and Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces. At any given time, the Chief of Staff is the only active officer holding the IDF's highest rank, Rav Aluf , which is usually...
) Yitzhak Rabin
Yitzhak Rabin
' was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77 and 1992 until his assassination in 1995....
and Israeli Prime Minister, Levi Eshkol
Levi Eshkol
' served as the third Prime Minister of Israel from 1963 until his death from a heart attack in 1969. He was the first Israeli Prime Minister to die in office.-Biography:...
, denied him. The operation went on over a period of slightly more than two years, during which the Stratofreighter carried out 14 nighttime sorties from Tel Nof to Yemen. The Mossad also operated several agents in Yemen. One of them, Baruch Mizrahi, was caught in 1967 and was imprisoned in Egypt. He was released in a prisoner exchange between Egypt and Israel following the Yom Kippur War
Yom Kippur War
The Yom Kippur War, Ramadan War or October War , also known as the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and the Fourth Arab-Israeli War, was fought from October 6 to 25, 1973, between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria...
in 1973.
Egypt
Anwar Sadat
Muhammad Anwar al-Sadat was the third President of Egypt, serving from 15 October 1970 until his assassination by fundamentalist army officers on 6 October 1981...
was convinced that a regiment reinforced with aircraft could firmly secure Al-Sallal and his free officer movement, but within three months of sending troops to Yemen, Nasser realized that this would require a larger commitment than anticipated. A little less than 5,000 troops were sent in October 1962. Two months later, Egypt had 15,000 regular troops deployed. By late 1963, the number was increased to 36,000; and in late 1964, the number rose to 50,000 Egyptian troops in Yemen. In late 1965, the Egyptian troop commitment in Yemen was at 55,000 troops, which were broken into 13 infantry regiments of one artillery division, one tank division and several Special Forces as well as paratroop regiments. Ahmed Abu-Zeid, who served as Egypt's ambassador to royalist Yemen from 1957 to 1961, sent numerous reports on Yemen that did not reach Ministry of Defense officials. He warned Egyptian officials in Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
, including Defense Minister Amer, that the tribes were difficult and had no sense of loyalty or nationhood. He opposed sending Egyptian combat forces and, arguing that only money and equipment be sent to the Yemeni Free Officers, and warned that the Saudis would finance the royalists.
All the Egyptian field commanders complained of a total lack of topographical maps causing a real problem in the first months of the war. Commanders had difficulty planning military operations effectively or sending back routine and casualty reports without accurate coordinates. Field units were given maps that were only of use for aerial navigation. Chief of Egyptian Intelligence, Salah Nasr
Salah Nasr
Salah Nasr served as head of the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate from 1957 to 1967. He retired citing health reasons following Egypt's defeat in the 1967 Six-Day War....
, admitted that information on Yemen was nonexistent. Egypt had not had an embassy in Yemen since 1961; therefore when Cairo requested information from the US ambassador to Yemen, all he provided was an economic report on the country.
Yakovlev Yak-11
|-See also:-References:* Gordon, Yefim, Dmitry Komissarov and Sergey Komissarov. OKB Yakovlev: A History of the Design Bureau and its Aircraft. Hinkley, UK: Midland Publishing, 2005. ISBN 1 85780 203 9....
piston-engined fighters, MiG-15 and MiG-17 jet fighters, Ilyushin Il-28
Ilyushin Il-28
The Ilyushin Il-28 is a jet bomber aircraft of the immediate postwar period that was originally manufactured for the Soviet Air Force. It was the USSR's first such aircraft to enter large-scale production. It was also licence-built in China as the Harbin H-5. Total production in the USSR was 6,316...
twin-engined bombers, Ilyushin Il-14
Ilyushin Il-14
The Ilyushin Il-14 was a Soviet twin-engine commercial and military personnel and cargo transport aircraft that first flew in 1950, and entered service in 1954. Il-14 was also manufactured in East Germany by VVB Flugzeugbau, in Czechoslovakia as the Avia 14, and in China under the Chinese...
twin-engined transports and Mil Mi-4
Mil Mi-4
The Mil Mi-4 was a Soviet transport helicopter that served in both military and civilian roles.-Design and development:...
transport helicopters. They were also flying four-engined Tupolev
Tupolev
Tupolev is a Russian aerospace and defence company, headquartered in Basmanny District, Central Administrative Okrug, Moscow. Known officially as Public Stock Company Tupolev, it is the successor of the Tupolev OKB or Tupolev Design Bureau headed by the Soviet aerospace engineer A.N. Tupolev...
bombers from bases in Egypt, such as Aswan
Aswan
Aswan , formerly spelled Assuan, is a city in the south of Egypt, the capital of the Aswan Governorate.It stands on the east bank of the Nile at the first cataract and is a busy market and tourist centre...
. All the air crew were Egyptian, except for the Tupolev bombers which were thought to have mixed Egyptian and Russian personnel. The Ilyushin transports flying between Egypt and Hodeida had Russian crews. Throughout the war, the Egyptians relied on airlift
Airlift
Airlift is the act of transporting people or cargo from point to point using aircraft.Airlift may also refer to:*Airlift , a suction device for moving sand and silt underwater-See also:...
. In January 1964, when royalist forces placed San'a under siege, Egyptian Antonov
Antonov
Antonov, or Antonov Aeronautical Scientist/Technical Complex , formerly the Antonov Design Bureau, is a Ukrainian aircraft manufacturing and services company with particular expertise in the field of very large aircraft construction. Antonov ASTC is a state-owned commercial company...
heavy-lift cargo planes airlifted tons of food and kerosene into the region. The Egyptians estimate that hundreds of millions of dollars were spent to equip Egyptian and republican Yemeni forces, and in addition, Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
refurbished the Al-Rawda Airfield outside San'a. The politburo
Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Politburo , known as the Presidium from 1952 to 1966, functioned as the central policymaking and governing body of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.-Duties and responsibilities:The...
saw a chance to gain a toehold on the Arabian Peninsula and accepted hundreds of Egyptian officers to be trained as pilots for service in the Yemen War.
Egyptian air and naval forces began bombing and shelling raids in the Saudi southwestern city of Najran
Najran
Najran , formerly known as Aba as Sa'ud, is a city in southwestern Saudi Arabia near the border with Yemen. It is the capital of Najran Province. Designated a New town, Najran is one of the fastest-growing cities in the kingdom; its population has risen from 47,500 in 1974 and 90,983 in 1992 to...
and the coastal town of Jizan
Jizan
-Ethnography:The inhabitants of Jazan, are made up of Arabs. Islam is the religion of almost the totality of the inhabitants of the city and the province.-External links:*http://www.jazan.gov.sa* *http://krwetatnt.com/vb/...
, which were staging points for royalist forces. In response, the Saudis purchased a British Thunderbird air defense system
English Electric Thunderbird
The English Electric Thunderbird was a British surface to air missile produced for the British Army. The Thunderbird was primarily intended to attack higher altitude targets at ranges of up to thirty miles or so. AA guns were still used for lower altitude threats...
and developed their airfield in Khamis Mushayt. Riyadh
Riyadh
Riyadh is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of Riyadh Province, and belongs to the historical regions of Najd and Al-Yamama. It is situated in the center of the Arabian Peninsula on a large plateau, and is home to 5,254,560 people, and the urban center of a...
also attempted to convince Washington to respond on its behalf. President Kennedy sent only a wing of jet fighters and bombers to Dhahran
Dhahran
Dhahran is a city located in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, and is a major administrative center for the Saudi oil industry. Large oil reserves were first identified in the Dhahran area in 1931, and in 1935 Standard Oil of California drilled the first commercially viable oil well...
Airbase, demonstrating to Nasser the seriousness of American commitment to defending U.S. interests in Saudi Arabia.
Egyptian offensives
General Staff
A military staff, often referred to as General Staff, Army Staff, Navy Staff or Air Staff within the individual services, is a group of officers and enlisted personnel that provides a bi-directional flow of information between a commanding officer and subordinate military units...
divided the Yemen War into three operational objectives. The first was the air phase, it began with jet trainers modified to strafe and carry bombs and ended with three wings of fighter-bombers, stationed near the Saudi-Yemeni border. Egyptian sorties went along the Tiahma Coast of Yemen and into the Saudi towns of Najran
Najran
Najran , formerly known as Aba as Sa'ud, is a city in southwestern Saudi Arabia near the border with Yemen. It is the capital of Najran Province. Designated a New town, Najran is one of the fastest-growing cities in the kingdom; its population has risen from 47,500 in 1974 and 90,983 in 1992 to...
and Jizan
Jizan
-Ethnography:The inhabitants of Jazan, are made up of Arabs. Islam is the religion of almost the totality of the inhabitants of the city and the province.-External links:*http://www.jazan.gov.sa* *http://krwetatnt.com/vb/...
. It was designed to attack royalist ground formations and substitute the lack of Egyptian formations on the ground with high-tech air power. In combination with Egyptian air strikes, a second operational phase involved securing major routes leading to San'a, and from there secure key towns and hamlets. The largest offensive based on this operational tactic was the March 1963 "Ramadan
Ramadan
Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, which lasts 29 or 30 days. It is the Islamic month of fasting, in which participating Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking and sex during daylight hours and is intended to teach Muslims about patience, spirituality, humility and...
Offensive" that lasted until February 1964, focused on opening and securing roads from San'a to Sadah to the North, and San'a to Marib to the East. The success of the Egyptian forces meant that royalist resistance could take refuge in hills and mountains to regroup and carry out hit-and-run offensives against republican and Egyptian units controlling towns and roads. The third strategic offensive was the pacification of tribes and their enticement to the republican government, meaning the expenditures of massive amounts of funds for humanitarian needs and outright bribery of tribal leaders.
Ramadan offensive
Beihan
Beihan , also known as Bayhan al Qisab , is a city in western Yemen. According to the census of 2005 conducted by the Yemeni government, the town has about 100,000 inhabitants...
, on the British-protected side of the border. In the battle of El Argoup, 25 miles southeast of San'a, 500 royalists under Prince Abdullah's commanded attacked an Egyptian position on top of a sheer-sided hill that was fortified with six Soviet T-54 tanks, a dozen armored cars and entrenched machine guns. The royalists advanced in a thin skirmish line and were plastered by artillery, mortars and strafing planes. They replied with rifles, one mortar with 20 rounds, and a bazooka with four rounds. The battle lasted a week and cost the Egyptians three tanks, seven armored cars and 160 dead. The Egyptians were now in positions from which they could hope to interdict the royalist movement of supplies in the mountains north and east of San'a'.
In the beginning of April the royalists held a conference with Faisal in Riyadh. They decided to adopt new tactics, including attempts to get supplies around the positions now held by the Egyptians by using camels instead of trucks to cross the mountains to reach the positions east of San'a. Camel caravans from Beihan would swing into the Rub al-Khali and enter Yemen north of Marib. It was also decided that the royalists must now strengthen their operations west of the mountains with three "armies". By the end of April, they began to recover and claimed to have regained some of the positions the Egyptians had taken in the Jawf, particularly the small but strategic towns of Barat and Safra, both in the mountains between Sadah and the Jawf, and were able to move freely in the eastern Khabt desert. In the Jawf they claimed to have cleaned up all Egyptian strong-points except Hazm, and in the west the town of Batanah.
Haradh offensive
On June 12, Egyptian infantry numbering at about 4,000, reinforced by the republican army and mercenaries from the Aden protectorate invaded the town of Beit Adaqah, about thirty miles west of San'a, where Prince Abdullah held a front extending from the Hodeida road, through Kawakaban province, to southern HajjahHajjah
Hajjah is the capital city of Hajjah Governorate in northwestern Yemen. It is located 127 kilometres northwest of Sana'a, at an elevation of about 1800 metres. As of 2003, the Hajjah City District had a population of 53,887 inhabitants....
. In two days, the attackers advanced about twelve miles, before being repelled by a counter-attack. The royalists admitted about 250 casualties. Next, the Egyptians attacked Sudah, about 100 miles north-west of San'a. They used the unpopularity of the local royalist commander to bribe several local sheiks and occupied the town unopposed. After a month, the sheiks sent delegations to al-Badr soliciting pardons and asking for guns and money with which to fight the Egyptians. Al-Badr sent new forces and managed to regain the surroundings of Sudah, though not the town itself.
Meanwhile, the Egyptians had planned a coordinated drive from Sadah to the southwest, below the Razih mountains, hoping to link up with the force coming from Haradh. They were counting on a local sheik, whose forces were to supposed to join 250 Egyptian parachutists. The sheik failed to deliver, and the parachutists made their way back to Sadah, suffering losses from snipers on the way. Al-Badr had sent radio messages and summonses by runner in all directions calling for reinforcement. He asked reserve forces training in the Jawf to arrive in trucks mounting 55- and 57-millimeter cannon and 81 millimeter mortars and heavy machine guns. They arrived within forty-eight hours, in time to face the attackers. They outflanked the Egyptian columns, still stuck in mud in the ravines. They later announced they had knocked out ten of the Egyptian tanks and about half of their armored cars, and claimed to have shot down an Ilyushin bomber. The royalists also carried out two supporting movements. One was a raid on Jihana, in which several staff officers were killed. The second was an attempt, involving British advisors and French and Belgian mercenaries from Katanga
Katanga Province
Katanga Province is one of the provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Between 1971 and 1997, its official name was Shaba Province. Under the new constitution, the province was to be replaced by four smaller provinces by February 2009; this did not actually take place.Katanga's regional...
, to bombard San'a from a nearby mountain peak. Other diversionary operations included raids on Egyptian aircraft and tanks at the south airport of San'a and a mortar at the Egyptian and republican residence in a suburb of Taiz. Although the Egyptians managed to drive al-Badr out of his headquarters to a cave on Jabal Shedah, they could not close the Saudi border. They declared victory on the radio and on the press, but were obliged to agree to a ceasefire on the upcoming Erkwit conference on November 2.
Alexandria summit and Erkwit ceasefire
In September, 1964, Nasser and Faisal met in the Arab summit in AlexandriaAlexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
. By that time Egypt had 40,000 troops in Yemen and had suffered an estimated 10,000 casualties. In their official communiqué the two leaders promised to 1) cooperate fully to solve the existing differences between the various factions in Yemen, 2) work together in preventing armed clashes in Yemen, and 3) reach a solution by peaceful agreement. The communiqué was widely hailed in the Arab world, and Washington called it a "statesmanlike action" and a "major step toward eventual peaceful settlement of the long civil war." Nasser and Faisal warmly embraced at Alexandria's airport and called each other "brother". Faisal said he was leaving Egypt "with my heart brimming with love for President Nasser."
On November 2, at a secret conference in Erkwit, Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
, the royalists and republicans declared a ceasefire effective at 1:00 PM on Monday, November 8. Tribesmen of both sides celebrated the decision until that day, and for two days after it went into effect, they fraternized at several places. On November 2 and 3, nine royalists and nine republicans, with a Saudi and an Egyptian observer, worked out the terms. A conference of 168 tribal leaders was planned for November 23. For the royalists, the conference was to become an embryo national assembly that would name a provisional national executive of two royalists, two republicans and one neutral, to administer the country provisionally and to plan a plebiscite. Until that plebiscite, which would decide whether Yemen would be a monarchy or a republic, both Sallal and al-Badr were to step aside. At the end of the two days the Egyptians resumed their bombing of royalist positions. The conference planned for November 23 was postponed to the 30th, then indefinitely. The republicans blamed the royalists for not arriving, while the royalists blamed the Egyptian bombings.
Royalist offensive
The royalists under the command of Prince Mohamed's objective was to cut the Egyptians' line and force them to withdraw. They intended to take over the garrisons along this line and establish positions from which they could interdict the Egyptian movement. They had prepared the attack with the help of the Nahm tribe, who tricked the Egyptians into believing that they were their allies and would take care of the mountain pass known as Wadi Humaidat themselves. The royalist deal was that the Nahm would be entitled to loot the ambushed Egyptians. The Egyptians may have suspected something was up, as they sent a reconnaissance aircraft over the area a day before the attack. The royalists thus occupied two mountains known as Asfar and Ahmar and installed 75-Millimeter guns and mortars overlooking the Wadi. On April 15, the day after the last Egyptian convoy went through, the royalists launched a surprise attack. Both forces numbered at only a couple of thousands. The guns positioned on Asfar and Ahmar opened fire, and then the Nahm came out from behind the rocks. Finally, Prince Mohamed's troops followed. This time, the royalists' operation was fully coordinated by radio. Some of the Egyptians surrendered without resistance, others fled to Harah 800 yards to the north. Both sides brought reinforcements and the battle shifted between Harf and Hazm.
Meanwhile, Prince Abdullah bin Hassan began to raid Egyptian positions north-east of San'a at Urush, Prince Mohamed bin Mohsin was attacking the Egyptians with 500 men west of Humaidat, Prince Hassan struck out from near Sadah and Prince Hassan bin Hussein moved from Jumaat, west of Sadah, to within mortar-firing distance of the Egyptian airfield west of Sadah. Fifty Egyptians surrendered at Mutanah, near Humaidat. They were eventually allowed to evacuate to San'a with their arms. Mohamed's policy was to keep officers as prisoners for exchange, and to allow soldiers to go in return for their arms. Three to five thousand Egyptian troops in garrisons on the eastern slopes of the mountains and in the desert now had to be supplied entirely by air.
Stalemate
Khamir
Noman spoke over Radio San'a, offering reconciliation and inviting "all tribes of all persuasions" to meet with him the following week at Khamir, 50 miles north of San'a, to achieve "the one thing which we all prize over anything else: peace for the nation." In order to convince al-Badr to come the conference, Noman announced that he personally would head the republican delegation at Khamir, and that Sallal would stay in San'a. Al-Badr and his ranking chiefs did not attend the conference, but a handful of pro-royalist sheiks were present. The conference named a committee of five tribal and four religious leaders who were charged with seeking out the "beguiled brothers", al-Badr and his friends. Noman's effort, including a private promise to reach a withdrawal of Egyptian troops, was backed by Nasser. Radio Cairo hailed the Khamir conference as the "dawn of a new era." Sallal called the talks "a complete success", while al-Badr stated that "It is essential that the conflict which has devastated our beloved country be brought to an end by peaceful negotiations between the Yemeni people themselves." However, by early June, when Noman said that Egypt's 50,000 troops would have to be replaced by a joint royalist-republican peace force, the Nasserites lost interest in the deal. After Noman flew to Cairo to protest directly to Nasser, Sallal threw seven civilian Cabinet ministers into jail. Noman resigned, saying "It is obvious that Sallal and his cronies are more interested in war than peace". Sallal soon named a new Cabinet to replace Noman's, with 13 military men and two civilians.Jeddah
- The gradual withdrawal of the Egyptian force within a ten-month period and the cessation of all Saudi help to the royalists; and
- The formation of a Yemen Congress of fifty, representing all factions, which would be charged with forming a transitional regime and establishing procedures for a national plebiscite to determine Yemen's future government.
Haradh
On November 23, the two sides met in Haradh. The first issue was the name of the transition state that was supposed to exist until a plebiscite could be held the following year. The royalists wanted the name "Kingdom of Yemen" but were willing to settle for a neutral title like "State of Yemen". The republicans insisted on having the word "republic" or "republican" in the title. It was agreed to suspend the conference until after the month-long fast of Ramadan, which was about to begin the following week. The conference reached a deadlock when the Egyptians, possibly due to a tactical decision made by Amer, encouraged the republicans to take a headstrong stand.Nasser's "long-breath" strategy
Egypt had run up a foreign debt of nearly $3 billion, and the gap between exports and imports had widened to a record $500 million for 1965. On Victory Day in Port SaidPort Said
Port Said is a city that lies in north east Egypt extending about 30 km along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, north of the Suez Canal, with an approximate population of 603,787...
, Nasser conceded that "We are facing difficulties. We must all work harder and make sacrifices. I have no magic button that I can push to produce the things you want". Premier Zakaria Mohieddin
Zakaria Mohieddin
Zakaria Mohieddin was an Egyptian military officer, politician, Prime Minister of Egypt and head of the first Intelligence body in Egypt, the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate.-Overview:...
raised Egypt's income tax, added a "defense tax" on all sales, and boosted tariffs on nonessential imports. He also hiked the cost of luxury goods 25% and set low price ceilings on most foodstuffs. He sent 400 plainclothesmen to Cairo's to arrest 150 shopkeepers for price violations. In March 1966, the Egyptian forces, now numbering almost 60,000, launched their biggest offensive. The royalists counterattacked but the stalemate resumed. Egyptian-supported groups executed sabotage bombings in Saudi Arabia.
In a speech on May Day
May Day
May Day on May 1 is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and usually a public holiday; it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures....
, 1966, Nasser said the war was entering a new phase. He launched what he called a "long-breath strategy." The plan was to pare the army from 70,000 men to 40,000, withdraw from exposed positions in eastern and northern Yemen, and tighten the hold on particular parts of Yemen: the Red Sea coastline; a northern boundary that takes in the well-fortified town of Hajja and San'a; and the border with the South Arabian Federation, which was to become independent in 1968. Nasser insisted that attacks on Najran, Qizan and other "bases of aggression" would continue, arguing that "these were originally Yemeni towns, which the Saudis usurped in 1930".
Assistant Secretary of State for the Near East and South Asia, flew in for talks with both Faisal and Nasser. In Alexandria, Nasser refused to pull out his troops, despite the risk of losing part or all of a new $150 million US food-distribution program, and another $100 million worth of industrial-development aid. Later that month, Alexei Kosygin counseled Nasser not to risk a stoppage of the U.S. Food for Peace program because Russia could not afford to pay the bill. The Russians were also willing to aid Nasser with arms and equipment in Yemen, but feared that a widening of the conflict to Saudi Arabia would lead to a "hot war" confrontation in the Middle East. Nasser was warned that "the Soviet Union would be displeased to see an attack on Saudi Arabia."
In October, Sallal's palace in San'a was shelled by a bazooka, and insurgents began targeting an Egyptian army camp outside the city and setting fire to Egyptian installations, killing a reported 70 Egyptian troops. Sallal arrested about 140 suspects, including Mohamed Ruwainy, the ex-Minister for Tribal Affairs, and Colonel Hadi Issa, former deputy chief of staff of the armed forces. Sallal accused Ruwainy and Issa of organizing a "subversive network seeking to plunge the country into terrorism and panic" and planning a campaign of assassination, financed by Saudi Arabia, Britain, Israel and the US. Ruwainy, Issa and five others were executed, while eight others received prison sentences ranging from five years to life. In February, 1967, Nasser vowed to "stay in Yemen 20 years if necessary", while Prince Hussein bin Ahmed said "We are prepared to fight for 50 years to keep Nasser out, just as we did the Ottoman Turks." Tunisia broke diplomatic relations with the republic, saying that the Sallal government no longer has power to govern the country. Sallal's chargé d'affaires in Czechoslovakia flew to Beirut and announced that he was on his way to offer his services to the royalists. Nasser said that "As the situation now stands, Arab summits are finished forever."
Gas warfare
Chemical warfare
Chemical warfare involves using the toxic properties of chemical substances as weapons. This type of warfare is distinct from Nuclear warfare and Biological warfare, which together make up NBC, the military acronym for Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical...
took place on June 8, 1963 against Kawma, a village of about 100 inhabitants in northern Yemen, killing about seven people and damaging the eyes and lungs of twenty-five others. This incident is considered to have been experimental, and the bombs were described as "home-made, amateurish and relatively ineffective". The Egyptian authorities suggested that the reported incidents were probably caused by napalm
Napalm
Napalm is a thickening/gelling agent generally mixed with gasoline or a similar fuel for use in an incendiary device, primarily as an anti-personnel weapon...
, not gas. The Israeli Foreign Minister, Golda Meir
Golda Meir
Golda Meir ; May 3, 1898 – December 8, 1978) was a teacher, kibbutznik and politician who became the fourth Prime Minister of the State of Israel....
, suggested in an interview that Nasser would not hesitate to use gas against Israel as well. There were no reports of gas during 1964, and only a few were reported in 1965. The reports grew more frequent in late 1966. On December 11, 1966, fifteen gas bombs killed two people and injured thirty-five. On January 5, 1967, the biggest gas attack came against the village of Kitaf, causing 270 casualties, including 140 fatalities. The target may have been Prince Hassan bin Yahya, who had installed his headquarters nearby. The Egyptian government denied using poison gas, and alleged that Britain and the US were using the reports as psychological warfare against Egypt. On February 12, 1967, it said it would welcome a UN investigation. On March 1, U Thant
U Thant
U Thant was a Burmese diplomat and the third Secretary-General of the United Nations, from 1961 to 1971. He was chosen for the post when his predecessor, Dag Hammarskjöld, died in September 1961....
said he was "powerless" to deal with the matter.
On May 10, the twin villages of Gahar and Gadafa in Wadi Hirran, where Prince Mohamed bin Mohsin was in command, were gas bombed, killing at least seventy-five. The Red Cross was alerted and on June 2, it issued a statement in Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
expressing concern. The Institute of Forensic Medicine at the University of Berne
University of Berne
The University of Bern is a university in the Swiss capital of Bern and was founded in 1834. It is regulated and financed by the Canton of Bern. It is a comprehensive university offering a broad choice of courses and programmes in eight faculties and some 160 institutes. The university is an...
made a statement, based on a Red Cross report, that the gas was likely to have been halogenous derivatives - phosgene
Phosgene
Phosgene is the chemical compound with the formula COCl2. This colorless gas gained infamy as a chemical weapon during World War I. It is also a valued industrial reagent and building block in synthesis of pharmaceuticals and other organic compounds. In low concentrations, its odor resembles...
, mustard gas, lewisite
Lewisite
Lewisite is an organoarsenic compound, specifically an arsine. It was once manufactured in the U.S. and Japan as a chemical weapon, acting as a vesicant and lung irritant...
, chloride
Chloride
The chloride ion is formed when the element chlorine, a halogen, picks up one electron to form an anion Cl−. The salts of hydrochloric acid HCl contain chloride ions and can also be called chlorides. The chloride ion, and its salts such as sodium chloride, are very soluble in water...
or cyanogen bromide
Cyanogen bromide
Cyanogen bromide is a pseudohalogen compound with the formula CNBr. It is a colorless solid that is widely used to modify biopolymers, fragment proteins and peptides, and synthesize other compounds.-Synthesis, basic properties, and structure:...
. The gas attacks stopped for three weeks after the Six-Day War
Six-Day War
The Six-Day War , also known as the June War, 1967 Arab-Israeli War, or Third Arab-Israeli War, was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967, by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt , Jordan, and Syria...
of June, but resumed on July, against all parts of royalist Yemen. Casualty estimates vary, and an assumption, considered conservative, is that the mustard and phosgene-filled aerial bombs caused approximately 1,500 fatalities and 1,500 injuries.
Egyptian withdrawal
By 1967, Egyptian forces relied exclusively on defending a triangle linking Hodeida, Taiz and San'a, while striking southern Saudi Arabia and North Yemen with air sorties. In August, 1967, in order to make up for the 15,000 Egyptian killed, captured or missing, as a result of the Six-Day WarSix-Day War
The Six-Day War , also known as the June War, 1967 Arab-Israeli War, or Third Arab-Israeli War, was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967, by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt , Jordan, and Syria...
, Nasser recalled 15,000 of his troops from Yemen. Egypt imposed higher taxes on its middle and upper classes, raised workers' compulsory monthly savings by 50%, reduced overtime pay, cut the sugar ration by a third, and curtailed practically all major industrial programs. Only military expenditures were increased, by $140 million to an estimated $1 billion. Nasser also increased the price of beer, cigarettes, long-distance bus and railroad fares and admission to movies. Egypt was losing $5,000,000 a week in revenues from the closing of the Suez Canal, on the other side of which, the Israelis were sitting on the Sinai wells that had produced half of Egypt's oil supply. Egypt's hard-currency debt was now approaching $1.5 billion and its foreign-exchange reserves were down to $100 million.
As part of the Khartoum Resolution
Khartoum Resolution
The Khartoum Resolution of September 1, 1967 was issued at the conclusion of an Arab League summit in the wake of the Six-Day War. The resolution, which formed a basis of the policies of these governments toward Israel until the 1973 Yom Kippur War, called for: a continued state of belligerency...
of August, Egypt announced that it was ready to end the war in Yemen. Egyptian Foreign Minister, Mahmoud Riad
Mahmoud Riad
Mahmoud Riad was an Egyptian diplomat. He was Egyptian ambassador to United Nations from 1962 to 1964, Egyptian foreign minister from 1964 to 1972, and Secretary-General of the Arab League from 1972 to 1979....
, proposed that Egypt and Saudi Arabia revive their Jeddah Agreement of 1965. Faisal expressed satisfaction with Nasser's offer, and al-Badr promised to send his troops to fight with Egypt against Israel, should Nasser live up to the Jeddah agreement Nasser and Faisal signed a treaty under which Nasser would pull out his 20,000 troops from Yemen, Faisal would stop sending arms to al-Badr, and three neutral Arab states would send in observers. Sallal accused Nasser of betrayal. Nasser unfroze more than $100 million worth of Saudi assets in Egypt, and Faisal denationalized two Egyptian-owned banks that he had taken over earlier that year. Saudi Arabia, Libya, and Kuwait agreed to provide Egypt with an annual subsidy of $266 million, out of which $154 million was to be paid by Saudi Arabia.
Sallal's popularity among his troops declined, and after two bazooka attacks on his home by disaffected soldiers, he took Egyptian guards. He ordered the execution of his security chief, Colonel Abdel Kader Khatari, after Khatari's police fired into a mob attacking an Egyptian command post in San'a, and had refused to recognize the committee of Arab leaders appointed at Khartoum to arrange peace terms. He also fired his entire Cabinet and formed a new one, installing three army men in key ministries, and took over the army ministry and the foreign ministry for himself. Meanwhile, Nasser announced the release of three republican leaders who had been held prisoner in Egypt for more than a year, and who were in favor of peace with the royalists. The three were Qadi Abdul Rahman Iryani, Ahmed Noman and General Amri. When Sallal met with Nasser in Cairo in early November, Nasser advised him to resign and go into exile. Sallal refused and went to Baghdad, hoping to get support from other Arab Socialists. As soon as he left Cairo, Nasser sent a cable to San'a, instructing his troops there not to block an attempt at a coup.
Siege of San'a
The new republican government was headed by Qadi Abdul Rahman Iryani, Ahmed Noman and Mohamed Ali Uthman. The Prime Minister was Mohsin al-Aini. Noman, however, remained in Beirut. He was doubtful of his colleagues reluctance to negotiate with the Hamidaddin family, preferring to expel it instead. On November 23, he resigned, and his place was taken by Hassan Amri. Prince Mohamed bin Hussein told the country's chiefs "We have money, and you will have your share if you join us. If not, we will go on without you". The chiefs agreed to mobilize their tribes. 6,000 royalist regulars and 50,000 armed tribesmen known as "the Fighting Rifles" surrounded San'a, captured its main airport and severed the highway to the port of Hodeida, a main route for Russian supplies. In a battle twelve miles east of the capital, 3,200 soldiers of both sides were killed, and an entire republican regiment reportedly deserted to the royalists. Bin Hussein gave them an ultimatum: "Surrender the city or be annihilated". Iryani went to Cairo for what the Egyptian official press agency called "a medical checkup". Foreign Minister Hassan Macky also left Yemen, leaving the government in charge of Amri. Amri declared a 6 p.m. curfew and ordered civilians to form militia units "to defend the republic". In Liberation Square, six suspected royalist infiltrators were publicly executed by a firing squad, and their bodies were later strung up on poles.
The republicans boasted a new air force, while the royalists claimed to have shot down a MiG-17 fighter with a Russian pilot. The US State Department said that this claim, as well as reports of twenty-four MiGs and forty Soviet technicians and pilots who had arrived in Yemen, were correct. In January, the republicans were defending San'a with about 2,000 regulars and tribesmen, plus armed townsmen and about ten tanks. They also had the backing of a score or more fighter aircraft piloted by Russians or Yemenis who passed a crash course in the Soviet Union. The city could still feed itself from the immediately surrounding countryside. Between 4,000 and 5,000 royalists suffered from republican air power, but had the advantage of high ground. However, they did not have enough ammunition, as the Saudis had halted arms deliveries after the Khartoum agreement and stopped financing the royalists after December.
Aftermath
By February, the siege was lifted and the republicans had essentially won the war. Meanwhile, the British had withdrawn from the Federation of South ArabiaFederation of South Arabia
The Federation of South Arabia was an organization of states under British protection in what would become South Yemen. It was formed on 4 April 1962 from the 15 protected states of the Federation of Arab Emirates of the South. On 18 January 1963 it was merged with the crown colony of Aden...
, which had now become South Yemen. The royalists remained active until 1970. Talks between the two sides commenced while the fighting went on. The Foreign Minister, Hassan Makki, said "Better years of talk than a day of fighting". In 1970, Saudi Arabia recognized the Republic, and a ceasefire was effected. The Saudis gave the republic a grant of $20 million, which was later repeated intermittently, and Yemeni sheiks received Saudi stipends. By 1971, both Egypt and Saudi Arabia had disengaged from Yemen. South Yemen formed a connection with the Soviet Union. In September 1971, Amri resigned after murdering a photographer in San'a, and more power was given to Iryani, the effective President. By then, the royalists were integrated into the new republic, except for al-Badr's family, and a consultative Council was established. Clashes along the border between the states rose, and in 1972 a small war broke.
After the war, the tribes were better represented in the republican government. In 1969 sheiks were brought into the National Assembly and in 1971 into the Consultative Council. Under Iryani, the sheiks, particularly the ones who fought for the republicans and were close to the mediation attempt. By the end of the war there was a breach between the older and more liberal politicians and republican sheiks, and certain army sheiks and activists from South Yemen. In the summer of 1972 a border war broke and ended with a declaration from both North Yemen and South Yemen that they would reunite, but they did not. There were complaints in North Yemen about foreign influence by Saudi Arabia.
See also
- Shia insurgency in Yemen
- Muhammad al-BadrMuhammad al-BadrH.M. Muhammad Al-Badr was the last king of the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen and leader of the monarchist regions during the North Yemen Civil War...
- Bruce CondeBruce CondeBruce Conde was a US Army officer, stamp collector, royal pretender, and a general for Royalist forces during the North Yemen Civil War.-Early years:...
- Mutawakkilite Kingdom of YemenMutawakkilite Kingdom of YemenThe Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen , sometimes spelled Mutawakelite Kingdom of Yemen, also known as the Kingdom of Yemen or as North Yemen, was a country from 1918 to 1962 in the northern part of what is now Yemen...
- Saudi-Yemeni WarSaudi-Yemeni War- The conflict :Ibn Saud, the founder of Saudi Arabia, had been named King of the Nejd when the British partitioned the Arabian peninsula following the breakup of the Ottoman Empire. Ibn Saud, by war and alliance, won control of much more, and in 1932 proclaimed the merger of the Nejd and Hejaz...
- Aden EmergencyAden EmergencyThe Aden Emergency was an insurgency against the British crown forces in the British controlled territories of South Arabia which now form part of the Yemen. Partly inspired by Nasser's pan Arab nationalism, it began on 10 December 1963 with the throwing of a grenade at a gathering of British...
- List of modern conflicts in the Middle East