Buraimi dispute

Belligerents

Saudi Arabia
Supported by:

Trucial Emirates

• Emirate of Abu Dhabi

British Empire
Aden Protectorate
Supported by:
Sultanate of Muscat and OmanCommanders and leaders

Turki bin Abdullah Al Otaishan
Major Abdullah bin Nami (WIA)
Supported by:

• Sheikh Rashid bin Hamad Al Shamsi
• Sheikh Saqr bin Sultan Al Nuaimi

Major Otto Thwaites † (in 1952)
Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan (in 1955)
Supported by:
Said bin TaimurStrength 80 Saudi Arabian guards
200 Bedouins 100 Trucial Oman Levies
300 Aden Protectorate Levies
7 armoured cars
14 Land Rovers
4 Lancaster bombersCasualties and losses Unknown? Unknown?

The Buraimi dispute, also known as the Buraimi war (Arabic: حرب البريمي), was a series of covert attempts by Saudi Arabia to influence the loyalties of tribes and communities in and around the oil-rich Buraimi oasis in the 1940s and 1950s, which culminated in an armed conflict between forces and tribes loyal to Saudi Arabia, on one side, and Oman and the Trucial States (today the United Arab Emirates, or UAE), on the other, which broke out as the result of a territorial dispute over the town of Al Buraimi in Oman, and parts of what is now the city of Al Ain in the Eastern Region of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. It amounted to an attempted Saudi invasion of the Buraimi Oasis. Its roots lay in the partitioning of tribal areas and communities which took place in the Trucial States when oil companies were seeking concessions to explore the interior.