Yemen Arab Republic (YAR)Western Asia, AsiaNovember 5, 1967
Event Summary
On November 5, 1967 Yemeni dissidents and republican tribesmen, acting with the tacit approval of Egypt's Nasser, staged a bloodless coup in Sanaa that finally removed President Abdullah al-Sallal, the founding president of the Yemen Arab Republic, ending five years of Egypt-dependent rule. Sallal's fall followed Egypt's decision, after its defeat in the June 1967 Six-Day War and the August Khartoum agreement to withdraw its tens of thousands of troops from Yemen, to abandon its costly Yemeni commitment. With his Egyptian backers pulling out, Sallal flew abroad; Nasser advised him to resign and go into exile, but Sallal instead flew to Baghdad seeking support from other Arab socialist governments.
Nasser then cabled the remaining Egyptian commanders in Sanaa not to intervene against a move on Sallal. Seizing the opening, dissidents supported by republican tribesmen moved four tanks into the capital's squares, took the presidential palace unopposed, and announced over the radio that Sallal had been removed from all positions of authority. Power passed to a three-man Republican Council chaired by the moderate civilian Abdul Rahman al-Iryani.
Sallal was granted asylum in Iraq.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Target identified in Coup Atlas research: President Abdullah al-Sallal, removed in the bloodless November 5, 1967 coup while abroad and granted political asylum in Baghdad; he was not physically harmed, and lived in exile in Egypt until returning to Yemen in the early 1980s.
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Abdullah al-Sallal (founding president removed)
Abdul Rahman al-Iryani (chairman of the new Republican Council)
Ahmed Numan and Mohamed Ali Othman (fellow Republican Council members)
Gamal Abdel Nasser (Egyptian backer who withdrew support)
Sources
The 1967 North Yemen coup was a bloodless overthrow of President Abdullah al-Sallal on November 5, 1967, carried out by Yemeni dissidents and tribal forces with the quiet approval of Nasserist Egypt, following Egypt's Six-Day War defeat and the August 1967 Khartoum agreement requiring Egypt to withdraw its forces; power shifted immediately to a three-person Republican Council chaired by Abdul Rahman al-Iryani with Ahmed Noman and Mohammad Ali Othman.
SOURCE REVIEWEDWikipedia, 1967 North Yemen coup d'etatopen source ↗
When Sallal refused Nasser's advice to resign and instead flew to Baghdad seeking support from other Arab socialist governments, Nasser cabled the remaining Egyptian troops in Yemen not to intervene if the North Yemeni army moved against Sallal; dissident groups and tribal militias then moved four tanks into Sanaa, met no resistance, took control of the Presidential Palace, and a radio broadcast announced the coup's success, with Sallal asking for political asylum in Iraq.
SOURCE REVIEWEDWikipedia, 1967 North Yemen coup d'etatopen source ↗
The surprising removal of Sallal on November 5 by Yemeni dissidents supported by republican tribesmen resulted in an internal shift of power in the capital, with the new republican government headed by Abdul Rahman al-Eryani, Ahmed Noman, and Mohamed Ali Uthman, and the capital left under the control of Prime Minister Hassan al-Amri.
SOURCE REVIEWEDWikipedia, North Yemen civil waropen source ↗
Abdullah al-Sallal served as the first president of the Yemen Arab Republic from 27 September 1962 until his removal on 5 November 1967, was later ousted in a bloodless coup led by Abdul Rahman Al-Iryani and exiled to Egypt, where he remained until President Ali Abdullah Saleh invited him to return in the early 1980s.
SOURCE REVIEWEDWikipedia, Abdullah al-Sallalopen source ↗
Editorial Note
Arc closer: this November 5, 1967 coup CLOSES the Yemen thread running through the dataset, connecting to the 1962-09-27 founding coup in which Sallal deposed the imam and the 1965-07-06 auto coup in which Sallal reasserted control against the moderate Numan cabinet (both enriched in earlier batches). Fate coding: Sallal was removed while abroad, granted asylum in Baghdad, and not physically harmed; the coup was bloodless. Context: the trigger was Egypt's post-Six-Day-War withdrawal under the Khartoum agreement, which removed the external prop that had sustained Sallal's regime. The al-Iryani Republican Council that followed moved toward reconciliation with the royalists, ending the civil war by 1970.
Cross-Reference
Datasets agree. At least two of the three reference datasets we check against carry this event, and none of them disagrees about its date or its result.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Abdullah al-Sallal, removed in the bloodless November 5, 1967 coup while abroad and granted political asylum in Baghdad; he was not physically harmed, and lived in exile in Egypt until returning to Yemen in the early 1980s..
Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset, v2.2.2
Peyton, Buddy, Joseph Bajjalieh, Michael Martin, and Andrea Gerald. 2026. Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset. Cline Center for Advanced Social Research. V.2.2.2. February 17. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. doi: 10.13012/B2IDB-9651987_V10
⚑ This citation establishes the coded baseline record; use the claim-level sources above for the researched narrative.
Baseline Source-Document Entries
CSP
Named in the baseline source document; no article citation was recorded.
Luttwak
Named in the baseline source document; no article citation was recorded.
Powell and Thyne
Named in the baseline source document; no article citation was recorded.
New York Times
“Coup is Proclaimed by Army in Yemen,” November 5, 1967
“Army Coup Ousts Yemeni President,” by Eric Pace, November 6, 1967
“Military in Yemen Ousts Government and Sets Up Junta,” June 14, 1974
“Yemen is Holding First Elections,” March 21, 1971
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →