Radfan revolt begins

A group of Yemeni army officers deposed Imam Muhammad al-Badr and proclaimed the Yemen Arab Republic. The revolution grew from domestic opposition to hereditary rule and wider republican currents....

Imam al-Badr survived the attack on his palace and began organizing royalist resistance. The survival of the imam enabled a rival political coalition to mobilize, preventing the new republican...

Egypt sent troops to support the new republican government after appeals from Yemeni leaders. Egyptian intervention transformed a Yemeni revolution into a wider regional war and brought large-scale...

Saudi Arabia supported the royalist opposition, responding to the republican revolution and Egyptian military presence near its border. Yemeni factions received outside money, weapons and political...

Britain merged Aden Colony with several protectorate sheikhdoms into the Federation of South Arabia. The federation preserved British influence over external affairs and security while presenting...

A grenade attack on the British High Commissioner in Aden killed one person and wounded about 50, after which the colonial administration declared a state of emergency. The insurgency grew amid...

Federation troops, supported by British air power, launched an operation in Radfan. The military campaign sought to reopen the road between Aden and Dhala and restore colonial-federation control....

British army forces and Federation troops began a renewed expedition into Radfan. The operation captured ridges and high ground, but the campaign’s central issue remained Yemeni opposition to...

British and Federation forces captured the main rebel stronghold in Wadi Dhubsan. The colonial account described the operation as suppression of a tribal revolt; the wider struggle involved local...

The National Liberation Front shifted its campaign toward Aden city, expanding urban armed resistance against British rule. British counterinsurgency and surveillance intensified, while the local...