Sheiks Under Siege

MIDDLE EAST

The 16 sultanates, sheikdoms and emirates that are joined with Aden in the Federation of South Arabia add up to an area of shifting sands, tribal fiefs, and steadily building trouble. A pair of powerful leftist terrorist organizations -- the Front for the Liberation of Occupied South Yemen (F.L.O.S.Y.), which is backed by Nasser, and the home grown rebels of the National Liberation Front (N.L.F.) -- have been jockeying for positions of power ever since Britain promised to give the federation its independence in January. With four months to go, the terrorists are operating with increasing urgency.

One day last week, the N.L.F. captured Zingibar, capital of Fadhli. Next morning a band of 28 N.L.F. rebels invaded the town of Jaar and kidnaped Sheik Ali Atefal-Khalidi, 24, who was taking his turn as chief of state of the federation's government, a job that rotates among the sheiks. Most of the other sheiks were off in Geneva, talking with a delegation of U.N. independence observers who had prudently decided to do their observing from afar.

The next in line to head the government was Sheik Ali Musaid al-Babak-ri, a desert tribesman who holds the unlikely position of Minister of Civil Aviation. Sheik al-Babakri immediately asked the federation's 8,000-man army to take charge of the government "in response to the desire of the people."

The army refused, and Al-Babakri resigned in a rage.

Into his place stepped the Sultan of Lahej, whose state is relatively prosperous because of its heavy trade in narcotics and firearms. It was unclear, however, just how much of the federation remained for the Sultan to govern. While the army looked the other way, another band of N.L.F. guerrillas made off with yet another member of the government, the Sultan of Lower Yafa. By week's end, the National Liberation Front--at present the stronger of the rebel groups--claimed it had gained control of ten states and would soon "overthrow the rest of the reactionary feudalists." An eleventh state had fallen to F.L.O.S.Y., and only five--plus Aden itself--remained under any form of federation control.

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