MUSCAT & OMAN: To the Hills

Britain’s 30-day war in the Oman desert sputtered to an end last week with the destruction of the last remaining mud-walled rebel forts, and the flight into the mountains of the rebel Imam of Oman himself, his rascally brother Talib and their only remaining ally of any note, one Sheikh Suleiman bin Himyar, who styles himself “Lord of the Green Mountains.” The rest of the Imam’s tatterdemalion forces fled off to fend for themselves. Total casualties among the forces of the British and the Sultan of Muscat and Oman since the counteroffensive began: one dead, three wounded, seven cases of heat prostration. Rebel casualties were unknown, but probably amounted to not more than 40 or 50 killed and wounded.

“The operation has been successful,” declared British Brigadier J.A.R. Robertson. “We have reinstated the Sultan’s forces. Political control is developing.” To make sure that the right kind of “political control” continues to develop. Britain will maintain an airstrip at Firq, but will withdraw most of its regular troops.

In Bahrein, British army spokesmen quoted captured Omani rebel troops as saying that 400 of the Imam’s recruits had been trained for seven months near Dammam in Saudi Arabia. British officers on the spot identified captured rebel grenades as U.S.-made, implied strongly that they, like the recruits, came from Saudi Arabia. Also picked up in the rubble: two British naval cannon dated 1646. The U.S.-made grenades, along with the rebel prisoners’ admission that they were trained in Saudi Arabia, may be used to counter Arab charges of “aggression” by Britain if the Arabs try to put the issue on the U.N.’s agenda.