Word: yemen
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...they listened over their shortwave radios, with a battle raging sporadically around them, the British civilians stranded in Aden, the capital of South Yemen, could hardly believe their ears. A BBC announcer in London told them to assemble in "the northeast sector of the Soviet-embassy compound, repeat the Soviet-embassy compound, from which you will be taken to the beaches for evacuation...
Caught unawares by South Yemen's rapidly spreading civil war, the British and Soviet governments were participating in a joint rescue operation that in a modest way resembled the Allied evacuation at Dunkirk during World War II. As savage fighting between Marxist factions spread throughout the desert country, about 5,000 foreigners were transported from Aden, at the southern approach to the Red Sea, to the former French colony of Djibouti, 150 miles away...
Dismayingly little was yet known about what was happening in the war itself. The beleaguered President, Ali Nasser Muhammad, 46, apparently made a quick trip to nearby Ethiopia, possibly to secure arms and ammunition, then returned to South Yemen, where he was reported to be assembling a force of 40,000 soldiers and volunteers in the Abyan region, his stronghold to the east of the capital. Rebel radio broadcasts rarely referred to Abdul Fattah Ismail, the former President who was thought to be leading the rebellion, thereby fueling speculation that he had been killed when fighting began two weeks...
...struggle between the Marxist factions, which has both ideological and tribal overtones, is equally murky. Former President Ismail is a Moscow-line ideologue who caused endless mischief for his more conservative Arab neighbors. He was succeeded in 1980 by Muhammad, a pragmatist who sought closer ties with neighboring North Yemen, Oman and Saudi Arabia...
While Italian authorities continued their investigations, Abbas continued his elusive travels. There was strong evidence that he was in Belgrade at least through Tuesday. Reports at midweek placed him in South Yemen, but the country's Marxist government issued a denial. Other speculation put him in Baghdad, where P.L.O. Leader Arafat was slated to put in an appearance at a meeting of the P.L.O.'s ten-member executive committee. Abbas is also a committee member, but in his case, attendance might not be advisable. Said another P.L.O. executive committee member: "Not even the Israelis could have achieved so much (damage...