Yemen fighting ‘spreads’

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33037, 3 October 1972, Page 15

Yemen fighting ‘spreads’

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

BEIRUT, October 2.

Fighting in the border area between the two Yemeni republics is reported to have spread further north and is causing increasing concern in the Arab world.

The north, the Yemen Arab Republic, said that four more of its border towns were under heavy air and ground attack. But report* from the south, the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen, said that their forces had been issued with ceasefire orders. The north Yemeni Embassy said in a late-night statement that the towns of Marib, Beida, Hasha, and Jubun had been attacked on the ground and by air yesterday The attacks were similar to those to which the border town of Kataba had been subjected for the last five days, the Embassy said. An earlier statement from the north Yemeni Government to Sanaa indicated that Kataba had fallen. The Sanaa Government, which did not specifically say Kataba had been captured, said that if South Yemen* forces did not withdraw from the town it would be "compelled to resort to force to throw them out.” Shortly before the Embassy statement about the widening of the South Yemeni attacks, the Iraqi news agency reported from Aden that the South Yemeni Prime Minister (Mr Mohammed Ali Nasser) had ordered his forces to cease fire at 5 p.m. yesterday.

During the day the Socialist Aden Government accused conservative Saudi Arabia and “imperialist forces”—possibly a reference to Britain—of backing North Yemeni forces and mercenary troops in plotting against it. There was no immediate reaction from Saudi Arabia to the accusation by the Riyadh Government. The neighbouring Sultanate of Oman, where the forces are British trained and to which a number of British officers are seconded, has been in conflict with South Yemen over the latter’s support of the Dhofar rebels. Hence the implied accusation of British collusion. North and South Yemen have accused each other of starting the fighting. At least two Arab Governments, Egypt and Kuwait, have expressed concern and an Arab League five-nation conciliation commission is due to set out from Cairo tomorrow to try to resolve the disnute. Observers believe that the commission may be able to effect a cease-fire and get the two countries to agree to the creation of a buffer zone along their border pending a final solution to the dispute. The South Yemenis have said that they will give the commission any facilities it wishes. The North said last night that it was urgently awaiting the commission’s arrival as it might succeed in stopping the bloodshed.