Dhofar War
The Dhofar War (also known by other names) took place from 1963 to 1976 in the province of Dhofar against the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman. The war began with the formation of the Dhofar Liberation Front, a Marxist group which aimed to create an independent state in Dhofar, free from the rule of the Omani Sultan Said bin Taimur. The rebels also held the broader goals of Arab nationalism which included ending British influence in the Persian Gulf region. Omani and British goals, on the other hand, were to safeguard Oman from communism and halt the spread of communist ideology as part of the broader Cold War.[10]
The war initially took the form of a low level insurgency with guerrilla warfare being used against Omani forces and the foreign presence in the country. A number of factors such as the British withdrawal from Aden and support from the newly independent South Yemen, China and the Soviet Union brought the rebels increased success, with the communists controlling the entirety of the Jebel region by the late 1960s. The 1970 Omani coup d'état led to the overthrow of Sultan Said bin Taimur by his reformist son Qaboos bin Said who was backed by a major British military intervention in the conflict. The British initiated a "hearts and minds" campaign to counter the communist rebels and began the process of modernising the Sultan of Oman's Armed Forces while simultaneously deploying the Special Air Service to conduct anti-insurgency operations against the rebels. This approach led to a string of victories against the rebels and was boosted by the Shah of Iran's intervention in the conflict to support the Sultanate of Oman in 1973. The war ended with the final defeat of the rebels in 1976.[11]
Background[edit]
In 1962, Oman was a very underdeveloped country. Sultan Said bin Taimur, an absolute ruler under British influence,[12] had outlawed almost all technological development and relied on British support to maintain the rudimentary functions of the state.
Oman at the time was a "British protectorate", a de facto colony. During his collaboration with the British empire, the sultan committed himself to maintaining an iron-fisted policy, slowing down the development of his country to the detriment of the Omani population, who lived in atrocious and unhealthy conditions.
The Omani people hated both the sultan and the British rulers, who administered the country while keeping the sultan in place and with whom they colluded to enrich each other behind the backs of the people. Nadir bin Ali bin Faisal, undersecretary of foreign affairs at the time, wrote a book called Sultan and Colonialism in which he stated that the sultan was nothing more than a British puppet without any authority.
The intolerance of the Arab people oppressed by the overbearing and British rule was increasingly felt, not only in Oman, but also in other countries, especially in Bahrain, which was another British colony. Dhofar itself was a dependency of Oman but was culturally and linguistically distinct from Oman proper.
The province of Dhofar consists of an intermittent narrow, fertile coastal plain, on which stand Salalah, the provincial capital, and other towns such as Mughsayl, Taqah, and Mirbat. Behind this are the rugged hills of the Jebel Dhofar. The western portion of this range is known as the Jebel Qamar, the central part as the Jebel Qara and the eastern part as the Jebel Samhan. From June to September each year, the jebel receives moisture-laden winds (the Khareef or monsoon) and is shrouded in cloud. As a result, it is heavily vegetated, and for much of the year is green and lush. The inhabitants of the villages and communities on the jebel are known as jibalis (hill people). To the north, the hills slope down via rough wadis and cliffs into the gravel plains and sand seas of the Empty Quarter.