Jebel Akhdar War

Jebel Akhdar War, a series of conflicts during the mid- and late 1950s between residents of the interior of Oman, supported by Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and the sultan of Muscat and Oman, who was aided by Britain. The rebels sought independence and control of the interior lands and any oil to be found therein.

Oman was historically divided between the coastal area, ruled by a sultan in Muscat, and the interior, where the people were loyal to an elected imam. Under the terms of the 1920 Agreement of Al-Sīb, the sultan was sovereign over all of Muscat and Oman, but the Omani interior enjoyed autonomy under its imam. Muscat and Oman remained peaceful until the late 1940s, when the oil company Aramco found what it thought was evidence of oil near the Buraimi Oasis, on the border between Oman and the Trucial States (now the United Arab Emirates). Saudi Arabia claimed the area. In 1952 Sultan Saʿīd ibn Taymūr of Muscat and Oman made common cause with Muḥammad al-Khalīlī, the Omani imam, to unite their forces in order to expel Saudi Arabia from the Omani portion of the oasis. However, the British government persuaded the sultan to stand down in light of an agreement between Britain and Saudi Arabia.

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In 1954 Muḥammad al-Khalīlī died and was succeeded by Ghālib. After the sultan granted an oil concession in the part of Oman that was under the imam’s control, Ghālib declared Oman to be independent of Muscat. The sultan responded by invading the Omani interior, with the support of British forces, and, after gaining control of the major towns, he declared the Agreement of Al-Sīb to be nullified and the office of imam abolished. Ghālib abdicated and retired to his home village, but his brother Ṭālib went first to Saudi Arabia and then to Egypt to gather support for Omani independence. In addition, he collected and trained an Omani military force. In 1957 Ṭālib returned to Oman with some 200 men and declared the imamate restored. Ghālib again assumed the title of imam. The sultan sent his forces to Ṭālib’s stronghold, and a seven-day battle ensued. The tribal leader Sulaymān ibn Ḥimyār later joined the rebellion, bringing with him all those who lived in the vicinity of the Jebel Akhdar mountains, and the rebels were then able to rout the sultan’s forces.

The sultan, believing that his forces would be unable to defeat the rebels, requested assistance from the British, who responded with infantry and air force bombers. The rebels were soon compelled to retreat into the Jebel Akhdar, where they made a new stronghold. Through most of 1958, British Royal Air Force (RAF) bombers attacked the rebels by air, to little avail, while the rebels were able to gain supplies and weaponry from Saudi Arabia. Blockades and attempts by ground forces to reach and dislodge the rebels were likewise ineffective. At last, in 1959, two British Special Air Service (SAS) squadrons were able to scale the Jebel Akhdar and end the rebellion. The sultan of Muscat and Oman resumed control of the Omani interior.