Sarfait | |
|---|---|
  Sarfait Location on the Oman–Yemen border | |
| Coordinates: 16°41′2″N53°6′46″E / 16.68389°N 53.11278°E | |
| Country |  Oman |
| Governorate | Dhofar |
Sarfait (Sarfayt) is a settlement in the Dhofar Governorate of Oman on the coast of the Arabian Sea, near the border with Yemen. There is an international border checkpoint at Sarfait; on the Yemeni side of the border is the settlement of Hawf.
There was much conflict in the area between the Omani government and communist-inspired armed guerrillas during the Dhofar Rebellion in the 1960s and 1970s. On 9 June 1975, an aggressive mortar and missile attack was launched on Sarfait. [1] In September 1975, the government forces responded and took formal military action against the PFLO. [2] [3] Led by John Akehurst, a diversionary attack was launched by the Dhofar Brigade of the Sultan of Oman's Armed Forces from the government's mountaintop garrison in Sarfait. [4]
Oman is the site of pre-historic human habitation, stretching back over 100,000 years. The region was impacted by powerful invaders, including other Arab tribes, Portugal and Britain. Oman once possessed the island of Zanzibar on the east coast of Africa as a colony. Oman also held Gwadar as a colony for many years.
The history of Yemen describes the cultures, events, and peoples of what is one of the oldest centers of civilization in the Near East. Its relatively fertile land and adequate rainfall in a moister climate helped sustain a stable population, a feature recognized by the ancient Greek geographer Ptolemy, who described Yemen as Eudaimon Arabia meaning "fortunate Arabia" or "Happy Arabia". Yemenis had developed the South Arabian alphabet by the 12th to 8th centuries BC, which explains why most historians date all of the ancient Yemeni kingdoms to that era.
Hadhramaut is a region in South Arabia, comprising eastern Yemen, parts of western Oman and southern Saudi Arabia. The name is of ancient origin, and is retained in the name of the Yemeni Governorate of Hadhramaut. The people of Hadhramaut are called Hadarem. They formerly spoke Hadramautic, an old South Arabian language, but they now predominantly speak Hadhrami Arabic, which has much influence from Hadramautic.
Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. It is located in the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the north and Oman to the northeast. It shares maritime borders with Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia. Covering 555,000 square kilometres and having a coastline of approximately 2,000 kilometres, Yemen is the second-largest Arab sovereign state on the Arabian Peninsula. Sanaa is its constitutionally stated capital and largest city. The country's population is estimated to be 34.2 million as of 2023. Yemen is a member of the Arab League, the United Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
The Dhofar Governorate is the largest of the 11 Governorates in the Sultanate of Oman in terms of area. It lies in Southern Oman, on the eastern border with Yemen's Al Mahrah Governorate and the southern border with Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province. It is a rather mountainous area that covers 99,300 km2 (38,300 sq mi) and had a population of 416,458 as of the 2020 census. The largest city and capital is Salalah. Historically, the region was a source of frankincense. The local dialect of Arabic is Dhofari Arabic, which is distinct from that of the rest of Oman and from Yemen.
The Sultan of Oman's Armed Forces are the Royal Army of Oman, Royal Navy of Oman, Royal Air Force of Oman, Sultan's Special Force and other defense forces of the Sultanate of Oman. Since their formal establishment in the early 1950s, with British assistance SAF has twice overcome insurgencies which have threatened the integrity or social structure of the state, and more recently have contributed contingents or facilities to coalitions formed to protect Arab states of the Persian Gulf.
Dhofar Liberation Front (DLF) was a communist front that was established to create a separatist state in Dhofar, the southern province of Oman, which shared a border with South Yemen.
The Royal Army of Oman is the ground forces component of the Sultan of Oman's Armed Forces. It was founded in 1907 as the Muscat Garrison. It has a current strength of 35,000 personnel.
The Dhofar Rebellion, also known as the Dhofar War or the Omani Civil War, was waged 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.
The Trucial Oman Scouts was a paramilitary force that the British raised in 1951 as the Trucial Oman Levies, to serve in the Trucial States. In 1956, the Levies were renamed the Trucial Oman Scouts. In 1971, upon the formation of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the scouts were handed to the United Arab Emirate's government and formed its Federal Union Defence Force (UDF) which is today renamed as the United Arab Emirates Armed Forces.
General Sir John Bryan Akehurst, was a British Army officer who rose to be Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe.
The South Yemen Civil War, colloquially referred to as The Events of '86 or The Events of January 13, or more simply as The Events, was a failed coup d'etat and armed conflict which took place on January 13, 1986, in South Yemen. The civil war developed as a result of ideological differences, and later tribal tensions, between two factions of the ruling Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP), centred on Abdul Fattah Ismail's faction, al-Toghmah, and Ali Nasir Muhammad's faction, al-Zomrah, for the leadership of the YSP and the PDRY. The conflict quickly escalated into a costly civil war that lasted eleven days and resulted in thousands of casualties. Additionally, the conflict resulted in the demise of much of the Yemeni Socialist Party's most experienced socialist leadership cadre, contributing to a much weaker government and the country's eventual unification with North Yemen in 1990.
Operation Simba, and the subsequent fighting around high ground near Sarfait, was the longest running conflict of the Dhofar Rebellion. On 17 April 1972, a battalion of the Sultan of Oman's Armed Forces (SAF) landed by helicopter to establish a position on a dominating ridge at Sarfait, near the border with the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY). The aim was to interdict the supply lines used by the guerillas of the PFLOAG from the PDRY to the interior of Dhofar, which ran along the narrow coastal plain beneath the foot of the escarpment at the southern end of the ridge.
The Sultan's Special Force (SSF) — Arabic: قوات السلطان الخاصة, transliterated:Qawat al-Sultaniya al-Khasah is a separate force branch within the Sultan's Armed Forces (SAF) and although equipped to carry out land defense operations, it is not part of the Royal Army of Oman.
The Northern Frontier Regiment (NFR) was formed in March 1957 and was one of the first two properly constituted infantry regiments that Sultan Said bin Taimur of Oman formed. The regiment's crest is two crossed drawn traditional Khanjar daggers pointing downwards, with scrolls carrying the regimental title in Arabic i.e. Kateeba al Hudood al Shamleeah. Members of the Regiment who served in Dhofar are entitled to wear the General Service Medal Oman, its ribbon design illustrated on the right.
The Muscat Regiment (MR) was formed in March 1957 and was one of the first two properly constituted infantry regiments that Sultan Said bin Taimur of Oman formed. The regiment's crest is two crossed Omani swords overlain vertically with a single traditional Khanjar dagger sheathed, with scrolls carrying the regimental title in Arabic. The regiment's headdress is a distinctive scarlet Tam o' Shanter style cap, rather than a beret. Members of the Regiment who served in Dhofar are entitled to wear the General Service Medal Oman, its ribbon design illustrated on the right.
The Royal Office transliterated:maktab al sultani is one of the most senior and therefore powerful ministries in the Sultanate of Oman. It is a government body that has most influence in national security and intelligence issues and the minister in charge has been the de facto national security advisor to the Sultan. The Palace Office also acts as a foreign liaison focus on all international intelligence and security matters.
Musallam bin Nufl, was a key insurgent leadership figure of the Dhofar Liberation Front (DLF) which was the main rebel force in Southern Oman in the 1960s. He was also a senior member of an influential and large Dhofari desert tribe known as the Bait Kathir.
The 1970 Omani coup d'état was the overthrow of Sultan of Oman Said bin Taimur by his son Qaboos bin Said in Oman on 23 July 1970. Occurring in the midst of the Dhofar Rebellion, the palace coup was executed with the support of the British and saw Sultan Said bin Taimur deposed and sent into exile to the United Kingdom. The coup was a pivotal moment in modern Omani history as Qaboos swiftly set in motion numerous wide-ranging modernization reforms in the kingdom, transforming Oman from an underdeveloped backwater into a country on par with many Western nations in terms of political stability and economic development. At the time of his death in January 2020, Sultan Qaboos was the longest-serving ruler in the Middle East.
The Jebel Regiment (JR) was formed in October 1970 and was one of the extra two properly constituted infantry regiments that Sultan Qaboos of Oman formed to augment the Omani Army in its operations in Dhofar. The regiment's crest is two crossed traditionally embossed Martini–Henry Rifles overlain vertically with a single traditional Khanjar dagger sheathed, with scrolls carrying the regimental title in Arabic. Members of the Regiment who served in Dhofar are entitled to wear the General Service Medal Oman, its ribbon design illustrated on the right.
 | This article about the geography of Oman is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |