Ears, Noses & Lips

In Cairo's newspapers, the little notices began appearing with tragic frequency --obituaries of young Egyptian officers killed in action. Where was the fighting? The papers did not say, but the bloody front was certainly in Yemen, where President Gamal Abdel Nasser had poured in some 12,000 troops to support the rebels who overthrew Imam Mohamed el Badr three months ago.

The expedition was costing Nasser heavily in money ($1,000,000 a day) as well as in blood. Only last month, Yemen's self-proclaimed President, Abdullah Sallal, the former commander of the palace guard who turned against the Imam, seemed to have the tiny feudal land firmly under control. Even when Saudi Arabia's Nasser-hating Crown Prince Feisal and Jordan's King Hussein rushed arms, advisers and money to the royalists, they seemed to have little effect.

But reports from the heart of the barren, remote land last week suggested that a Yemen guerrilla army of more than 30,000 fierce, leathery tribesmen at last was on the move against the rebels--and taking a deadly toll.

In the remote mountain valleys north of the capital city of San'a, the royalists encircled and began starving out two Egyptian garrisons of more than 1,000 men. Another group of dagger-wielding backers of the Imam clambered up rocky hills at dawn to catch Egyptian Brigadier Abdel Moneim Sinat and 200 of his paratroopers by surprise; they brought back Sinat's severed head as a trophy.

Sure-footed as mountain goats, and skillful as surgeons with their curved knives, the guerrillas take few prisoners. Occasionally they slice off ears, noses or lips and send them back to the rebels as a gory reminder that the war is not over. But the royalists stay away from the main towns and highways, for even their ferocity is no match for Nasser's jet planes. San'a remains in rebel hands.

The question was, how long would Nasser be willing to tight for such limited benefits? Even before the new royalist surge, Egypt's dead and wounded were said to number about 1,000. At some stage, those little death notices in the Cairo papers might prove too great an expense for an adventure in the desert.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.