Siege of Sanaa (1967)

North Yemen Civil War. The siege would become a critical battle to determine the outcome of the war and the eventual failure of the royalists to retake the city, the Republicans won a de facto tactical victory in the war, retaining the seat of power, and gradually winning international recognition as a legitimate North Yemen

Abdul Rahman Iryani, Ahmad Muhammad Numan, and Mohamed Ali Uthman. The Prime Minister was Mohsin Ahmad al-Aini. Noman, however, remained in Beirut. He was doubtful of his colleagues reluctance to negotiate with the Hamidaddin family, preferring to expel it instead. On November 23, he resigned, and his place was taken by Hassan al-Amri.^[5]

Hodeida, a main route for Soviet supplies. In a battle twelve miles east of the capital, 3,200 soldiers from both sides were killed, and an entire republican regiment reportedly defected to the royalists. Bin Hussein gave them an ultimatum: "Surrender the city or be annihilated".^[6] Iryani went to Cairo for what the Egyptian official press agency called "a medical checkup". Foreign Minister Hassan Macky also left Yemen, leaving the government in charge of Amri. Amri declared a 6 p.m. curfew and ordered civilians to form militia units "to defend the republic". In Liberation Square, six suspected royalist infiltrators were publicly executed by a firing squad, and their bodies were later strung up on poles.^[6]

US State Department said that this claim, as well as reports of twenty-four MiGs and forty Soviet technicians and pilots who had arrived in Yemen, were correct. In January, the republicans were defending San'a with about 2,000 regulars and tribesmen, plus armed townsmen and about ten tanks. They also had the backing of a score or more fighter aircraft piloted by Soviet or Yemenis who had passed a crash course in the Soviet Union. The city could still feed itself from the immediately surrounding countryside. Between 4,000 and 5,000 royalists suffered from republican air power, but had the advantage of high ground. However, they did not have enough ammunition, as the Saudis had halted arms deliveries after the Khartoum agreement and stopped financing the royalists after December 1967.^[7]