The First Yemenite War was a short military conflict between the

Yemen Arab Republic The Yemen Arab Republic (YAR; ', ), commonly known as North Yemen or Yemen (Sanaʽa), was a country that existed from 1962 until its Yemeni unification, unification with the South Yemen, People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (commonly known as ...

(YAR; North Yemen) and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY; South Yemen).Gause, Gregory
Saudi-Yemeni relations: domestic structures and foreign influence
Columbia University Press, 1990, page 98

Background

South Arabian League (SAL) rebels attacked positions in eastern South Yemen, arriving from Saudi Arabia on February 20, 1972. The rebels were defeated by South Yemen government troops on February 24, 1972, with some 175 rebels killed during the military hostilities. Prime Minister Ali Nasir Muhammad survived an assassination attempt by SAL rebels on May 22, 1972. Six persons were sentenced to death for plotting to overthrow the government on July 9, 1972. Saudi Arabia continued to oppose South Yemen and supported the Northern Yemeni troops in the upcoming struggle.

Conflict

The war, initiated by North Yemen, started on 26 September 1972, the tenth anniversary of the start of the North Yemen Civil War. A force composed of members of different political groups and exiled tribesmen from South Yemen, equipped with

Alvis Saladin The FV601 Saladin is a six-wheeled armoured car developed by Crossley Motors and later manufactured by Alvis. Designed in 1954, it replaced the AEC armoured car in service with the British Army from 1958 onward. The vehicle weighed 11 tonnes ...

armoured cars provided by Libya and artillery donated by the North Yemeni military, invaded South Yemen in the Qatabah area. In response, the South Yemenis brought several of their battalions to the area of the border with the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen). The South Yemeni air force (PDRYAF) also started bombing the areas invaded by the Northerners, and their military positions. Over the course of one such mission, on 30 September, a PDRYAF MiG-17 fighter was shot down and its pilot killed. In the end, South Yemeni counterattacks supported by air strikes caused over 200 casualties to the invaders, and recovered all of the lost territory. Overall, during the short war, the Southern military demonstrated its capability to run well-planned operations. Its logistics system proved adequate, and the air force's actions in ground-attack and supply missions were deemed effective. During the conflict, the Yemen Arab Republic (North) was supplied by

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

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, the

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and the

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and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (South) by the

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Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

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and

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Aftermath

Cairo Agreement of 1972

The fighting was short-lived; the war ended 23 days later, on 19 October, by a

ceasefire A ceasefire (also known as a truce), also spelled cease-fire (the antonym of 'open fire'), is a stoppage of a war in which each side agrees with the other to suspend aggressive actions often due to mediation by a third party. Ceasefires may b ...

. This was followed by the Cairo Agreement of 28 October, which put forward a plan to unify the two countries in a "republican, national and democratic" state, based on "free and direct" elections.

Hostilities in late 1970s

South Yemen instigated and funded a broad-based opposition movement in the north, the National Democratic Front (NDF), during the mid-1970s.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Yemenite War Of 1972 1972 in Yemen Conflicts in 1972 Wars involving Yemen South Yemen Proxy wars September 1972 in Asia October 1972 in Asia