96- Rafal Gan-Ganowicz. Polish Hero Of Yemen

external communication.A Coup D’étatBadr, residing in Sana’a, did not obviously have the political craftiness of his father and he did notfigure out that at the same time four plots were organised against his rule. Two of them grew in themilitary forces: the first one was commanded by captain Ali Abdul al Moghny and the other one – bycolonel Sallal. These were the typical officers’ conspiracies. The third plot was organised by themembers of the tribal group – the Hashid – who were trying to take their revenge for executing – onthe order of Ahmad – their charismatic sheik and his son. The fourth plot was prepared by theyounger sons of the clan elders who were simply trying to provide themselves with various benefitsby means of placing someone from their generation on the throne. It seems that the only personfamiliar with this network of intrigues was the Egyptian chargé d'affaires – Abdul Wahad. He actedon the basis of the confidential instructions telling to support the other groups supporting Egypt inthe Yemen Pan-Arabian opposition.The Egyptian was afraid that the conspirators would not have enough will, courage anddetermination in order to carry out the coup d’état and therefore then he became involved in theamazingly complex conflict. Twenty four hours before the planned putsch, he informed Badr that thearmy was planning an action against him. The next step was to inform the conspirators that theirintentions had been discovered and that only outdistancing the action of the forces faithful to themonarch could save them from arresting. In this way, “the die was cast”.Sallal and other plotters were in essence deprived by the Egyptian intrigue of any room formanoeuvre. On the morning of September 25, the colonel put the students of Military Academy intobattle readiness. In this academy the influences of conspirators were particularly strong and that iswhy the colonel attempted to inform the other members of officer conspiracies of the beginning ofthe action. However, captain Moghny, another officer involved in the intrigue and the commandingofficer of the armoured division stationed in Sana’a, acted faster. The main objects of the assassins’actions were typical of the situation – they intended to capture the Badr’s seat, the arsenal, the policeheadquarters, the building of the ministry of foreign affairs, the radio station, the telephone centraloffice and the airport as soon as possible.On September 25, around 09.00 Moghny started his “revolution”, leading 13 tanks, sixarmoured cars, two self-propelled guns and two towed anti-tank heavy guns onto the imam’s palace.Around 10.30 Badr heard the rattle of the armoured tanks and started to blindly fire a machine gunthrough the window of his palace. The plotters opened fire several dozen minutes later when the2