Yemen PDR, 1968 — military coup attempt
Event Summary
The dataset records an attempted military coup in South Yemen on 31 August 1968, within the same National Liberation Front factional war between the Qahtan al-Shaabi right and the Marxist Leninist left that had produced the March 1968 purge. The most serious armed challenge of this period was a rebellion led by Colonel Abdallah Salih Saba al-Awlaqi, commander of the Security Forces, which government troops suppressed in fighting from late July into August 1968, leaving some 120 rebels and a dozen government soldiers dead. Further clashes between government forces and dissidents continued in the Bayhan and Harib areas in the following months.
The Qahtan government survived these risings but remained deeply unstable, and less than a year later, in June 1969, it was finally overthrown from within by the leftist Corrective Move that turned South Yemen into a Marxist state.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
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:
- Cline Center id
68008311968- Albrecht/Koehler/Schutz (CAM) id
CAM-680-1968-08-31-2
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Qahtan al-Shaabi's government suppressed the August 1968 rebellion but fell to the leftist Corrective Move in 1969.
Baseline coding: Coup attempt failed to remove the incumbent. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
Powell and Thyne
Chicago Tribune
Hartford Courant
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 →