Dhofar War

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Dhofar War
Part of the Cold War and the Arab Cold War
A soldier of the Sultan of Oman's Armed Forces brewing tea in 1970
Date 9 June 1965[7]– 11 March 1976 (12 years, 9 months and 2 days) Location Dhofar Province, Oman Result Omani government victory[8]
Belligerents
Oman Iran  United Kingdom  Jordan  United Arab Emirates[1]	DLF (1963–1968) PFLOAG (1968–1974) NDFLOAG (1969–1971) PFLO (1974–1976)
Support:  Saudi Arabia[2]	Support:  South Yemen  China[3][4][5]  Iraq[6][1]
Strength
10,000 1,800 4,000[9] 500 500 800[10] small troop unit[1]	5,000–6,000 rebels[11][failed verification]
Casualties and losses
187 killed 559 wounded 719 killed[12] 1404 wounded[12] 24 killed 55 wounded	1,400 killed 2,000 captured (Iranian estimate)[13]
10,000 total killed[14]

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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.^[15]

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.^[2]