Yemenite War of 1972

First Yemenite War
Part of the Cold War and the Arab Cold War
North & South Yemen
Date 26 September – 19 October 1972 (3 weeks and 2 days) Location North Yemen–South Yemen border Result Cairo Agreement No territorial changes Two Yemens pledge ambition to unify
Belligerents
North Yemen Supported By:  Saudi Arabia  United States  United Kingdom  Jordan  Iran  Egypt	South Yemen Supported By:  Cuba  Soviet Union Libya Iraq  East Germany  Czechoslovakia  North Korea
Commanders and leaders
Abdul Rahman al-Eryani Ali Abdullah Saleh	Abdul Fattah Ismail

• v
• t
• e

Internal conflicts
in modern Yemen

• Alwaziri coup
• Yemeni–Adenese clan violence
• North Yemen Civil War
• Aden Emergency
• Yemenite War of 1972
• NDF Rebellion
• Yemenite War of 1979
• South Yemen Civil War
• Yemeni Civil War (1994)
• Al-Qaeda insurgency in Yemen
• Houthi insurgency in Yemen
• South Yemen insurgency
• Yemeni Crisis
  • Yemeni Revolution
  • Yemeni civil war (2014–present)

The First Yemenite War was a short military conflict between the Yemen Arab Republic (YAR; North Yemen) and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY; South Yemen).^[1]

Background

South Arabian League (SAL) rebels attacked positions in eastern South Yemen, arriving from Saudi Arabia on February 20, 1972.^[2] The rebels were defeated by South Yemen government troops on February 24, 1972, with some 175 rebels killed during the military hostilities.^[2] Prime Minister Ali Nasir Muhammad survived an assassination attempt by SAL rebels on May 22, 1972.^[2] Six persons were sentenced to death for plotting to overthrow the government on July 9, 1972.^[2] Saudi Arabia continued to oppose South Yemen and supported the Northern Yemeni troops in the upcoming struggle.

Conflict

The war, initiated by North Yemen,^[3] started on 26 September 1972,^[3][4] the tenth anniversary of the start of the North Yemen Civil War.^[3] A force composed of members of different political groups and exiled tribesmen from South Yemen, equipped with Alvis Saladin 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.^[5] During the conflict, the Yemen Arab Republic (North) was supplied by Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Iran, the United Kingdom and the United States and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (South) by the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Iraq, Libya and Cuba.^[1]

Aftermath

Cairo Agreement of 1972

The fighting was short-lived; the war ended 23 days later, on 19 October,^[3] by a ceasefire.^[3] This was followed by the Cairo Agreement of 28 October,^[3] which put forward a plan to unify the two countries in a "republican, national and democratic" state, based on "free and direct" elections.^[3][1]

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.^[6]

See also

• NDF Rebellion
• Yemenite War of 1979
• Modern history of Yemen
• List of wars involving Yemen

References

Notes

Bibliography

• Cooper, Tom (2017). Hot Skies Over Yemen, Volume 1: Aerial Warfare Over the South Arabian Peninsula, 1962-1994. Solihull, UK: Helion & Company Publishing. ISBN 978-1-912174-23-2.