Yemenite War of 1972


The Yemenite War of 1972 was a short military conflict between the Yemen Arab Republic and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen.

Background

South Arabian League 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; the fighting mostly consisted of border clashes. During the conflict, the north was supplied by Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Iran, the United Kingdom and the United States and the south by the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Iraq, Libya and Cuba.

Aftermath

Cairo Agreement of 1972

The fighting was short-lived; the war ended 23 days later, on 19 October, by a ceasefire. 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, during the mid-1970s.