The Military and Police Forces of the Gulf States: Volume 1: Trucial States and United Arab Emirates, 1951–1980

By Cliff Lord and Athol Yates

This comprehensive guide offers a detailed overview of the armed forces in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the UAE—fully illustrated with photos and maps.
 
This volume provides a complete picture of Gulf State armed forces, including historical information on each state describing how the various militaries developed. Maps are provided, along with a glossary of terms and diagrams showing various Orders of Battle. military histories of the forces are supported by scores of photographs, many of which showcase the uniforms and a selection of badges and insignia.
 
Military forces covered in this volume include the Bahrain Levy Corps, Trucial Oman Levies, Trucial Oman Scouts, Union Defense Force, Federal Armed Force, Abu Dhabi Defense Force, Dubai Defense Force, Ras Al-Khaimah Mobile Force, Sharjah National Guard, Umm Al-Quwain National Guard and Sultan’s Armed Forces of Oman, plus selected paramilitary and police forces.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Apr 19, 2019
• ISBN: 9781912866809

Book preview

1

THE EMIRATES

The UAE is a federation comprising seven emirates–Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah, Sharjah and Umm Al Quwain. Each is headed by a Ruler, which is effectively a hereditary post held by a member of that Emirate’s Ruling Family. The UAE was formed in 1971, with the Emirates previously being collectively known as the Trucial States. The UAE is about the size of Scotland with a mainland area of around 77,700 km². It is situated in the Lower Gulf region and has coastlines in both the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.

The Arabian Gulf is a relatively shallow body of water with a depth that rarely exceeds 90m. Historically, the Gulf has been valued for its fishing and pearl oysters, and as a route for transporting goods and people. From the early 20th century, it has been globally critical as a key route for the transport of oil and gas.

Figure 1: The Arabian Peninsula and region

At around 400km east to west and 350km north to south, the UAF’s mainland areas provide no strategic depth to which its military could retreat and regroup following any large-scale attack (see Figure 1). The country’s vulnerability is compounded by its small population (which in 1968 was just 180,000), and the concentration of government, population and economic activity in just a few large cities on the Arabian Gulf coast, with smaller concentrations on the East Coast, notably Fujairah and Khor Fakkan.

The UAE neighbours four countries – Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Iran. Over the period from 1951 to 1980, all four disputed their territorial or maritime boundaries with the Emirates, and these tensions significantly drove the development of the security forces in the Emirates. The dispute with Qatar involved the ownership of land and islands in Abu Dhabi’s far west as at that time, the two states shared a border. This dispute ended in the 1960s when Britain, which was then responsible for the external affairs of all Lower Gulf states, unilaterally decided the location of the borders. Disputes with Oman waxed and waned over the decades, with the major ones relevant to this book being over the border location in the area of the inland Buraimi Oasis, adjacent to the Abu Dhabi town of Al Ain, and eastern areas including with Ras Al Khaimah in its north, with Dubai in the area of Hatta, and with Sharjah and Fujairah over the size of the Omani Madhah enclave inside UAE territory. It was only in 2002 that a final agreement on the roughly 1,000km common border between the two countries was signed.

The territorial dispute with Saudi Arabia has its origins in the arrival of a Wahhabi force in the area in the 1800s. This provided Saudi Arabia with a justification in 1949 to unilaterally declare a new border line, claiming some 80 percent of the onshore territory of Abu Dhabi and large parts of Oman. The Saudi claim included the Al Ain/Buraimi Oases as it could provide them with a base from which to extend their influence into both Oman and Abu Dhabi. At that time, the oases had a population of some 25,000 spread over nine villages. Six of these were governed by Abu Dhabi’s Ruler and three by the Sultan of Oman. Britain, Abu Dhabi and Oman rejected Saudi Arabia’s claim and sought negotiations. To press its claim, in August 1952 a small Saudi force occupied Hamasa, one of the Omani villages in Buraimi. The Saudis remained until 1955 when the British forcefully evicted them with the support of Abu Dhabi and local forces. Britain immediately and unilaterally declared a new border between Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia.

The new border was not accepted by Saudi Arabia, but it did not press its claim again until the late 1960s when Britain’s departure from the Gulf was apparent. Saudi Arabia made its diplomatic recognition of the UAE contingent on a suitable settlement, as well threatening to revert to its proclaimed 1949 border if a suitable settlement was not achieved. Recognising the political difficulties of an ongoing disagreement with its largest neighbour, in 1974 Sheikh Zayed reluctantly signed the Treaty of Jeddah to settle the dispute. This gave Saudi Arabia ownership of land covering some 80 percent of the giant Zarrarah oil field (known as the Shaybah oil field by Saudi Arabia), and a 25km-wide corridor of land near Khor Al Odaid in Abu Dhabi’s far west which cut the land connection between Abu Dhabi and Qatar. The agreement left the whole of the Buraimi/Al Ain area as part of Oman and Abu Dhabi.

The territorial dispute with Iran, which is still ongoing, involves Iran’s occupation of three islands – Abu Musa which is owned by Sharjah, and Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb which are owned by Ras Al Khaimah. Iran’s annexation of the Tunb islands occurred on 30 November 1971, one day before Britain ended its protection of the Emirates. A Ras Al Khaimah policeman was killed during Iran’s invasion. British military forces did not respond to Iran’s action, and the police and military forces of Ras Al Khaimah were too small to mount an effective challenge. The island of Abu Musa was taken over in 1971 by Iran and has been used as a military base since 1992.

The Emirates are in effect city-states, with their capitals carrying the same name as the Emirate. Most of the population of each Emirate lives in their capital. Abu Dhabi is the capital of the UAE. There are considerable differences in the size, geography, population and resources of each Emirate. As seen in Table 1, Abu Dhabi has the largest territory, is the most populous and owns the vast bulk of all oil in the UAE.

An unusual feature of the UAE are its internal borders. Several Emirates have enclaves within other Emirates and this reflects historic arrangements under which the extent of a Ruler’s domain was primarily governed by the land grazed or owned by the tribes that gave allegiance to that Ruler. Thus the Ruler’s domain changed over time to reflect changes in both tribal allegiances and the tribes’ location, size, power and prestige. In the 1950s, the boundaries between each Emirate were formally agreed to by the Rulers based on tribal allegiance. This resulted in enclaves being formed within other Emirates. In a small number of locations, the tribal boundaries and hence the Emirate borders were unresolved and a frequent cause of inter-Emirate tension and tribal conflict. These unresolved conflicts were another key driver in the shaping of the security forces in the Emirates. One common way to calm tensions was to locate police/military posts or even bases in trouble spots. Examples of this are the military bases established in the 1970s at Masafi and Khor Fakkan.

Figure 2: Geography and key locations in the UAE to 1980

THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT

The UAE can be divided into four topographical zones: (1) The coastal plain and sabkha of the Arabian Gulf coast. Sabkha is salt-encrusted, low-lying mud-like flats that exist in areas where the heavily-saline water table is close to the surface. It is firm when dry, but after rain the crust impedes drainage with the result that the sabkha turns into a quagmire which is impractical to cross. (2) The desert. Sand desert dominates most of the south and west of the UAE, and merges into the Empty Quarter (Rub Al Khali) which spans the emirate of Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia and is the largest sand desert in the world, with inter-dunal sabkha in places. Dunes can reach 300 metres in height with up to a 50-degree slipface, making travel difficult. Given the arid environment, permanent settlement was only possible in two areas which had reliable groundwater-the Liwa and Al Ain/Buraimi Oases. (3) The steep and rugged Hajar Mountains, a 65km long and 25km wide mountain chain in the UAE’s east. The mountains plunge into the sea along much of the coast of the Gulf of Oman, creating steep cliffs which cannot be ascended from the sea. There are only a few sandy beaches and small natural harbours along this coast. There are relatively narrow coastal plains which are the outwash plains from major wadis that offer routes through the mountains, such as Wadi Ham. In these areas, small settlements existed, such as Dibba, Fujairah and Kalba. (4) The narrow fertile alluvial gravel plains. These are to the west of the Hajar Mountains, and movement across these plains is relatively easy.

Before the advent of motor vehicles, most people who travelled from Abu Dhabi to the Oman coast travelled via the Al Ain/Buraimi Oases. People travelling from Qatar/Saudi Arabia to Abu Dhabi had two main routes – by vessel and along the coast. To get to the Al Ain/Buraimi Oases from Saudi Arabia, a less well travelled route was across the Empty Quarter south of Liwa. People travelling from the East Coast towns like Fujairah and Dibba could travel across narrow mountain tracks to the Arabian Gulf towns. Control of these routes was thus essential to protecting the Emirates. This explains why the British military and Emirati military and police forces placed great importance on monitoring and controlling these routes. Unsurprisingly, the first military posts in the Trucial States were located along these routes (e.g. at Tarif, Wadi Al Qawr and Al Ain).

The climate of the Emirates is harsh, since the country is in the subtropical arid zone of the Middle East. Its average annual rainfall is very low although there is considerable variation across the country. Typically, average annual rainfall is 78mm a year, but far less falls in the south-west desert areas. The summers are very hot, reaching 50°C with 100 percent humidity. There are no permanent rivers or lakes in the UAE, with only a few permanent springs in the mountains, notably in the Hajar Mountains of Fujairah. This meant that virtually all water came from ground sources, wells or from systems built to catch winter rainfall, until desalination became viable. There was also the transport of water from elsewhere, such as from Kuwait or Al Ain. There are two main seasons – winter (December to March) and summer (June to September) – which are separated by two short transition periods.

THE PEOPLE

The Emirate’s barren environment resulted in the evolution of two distinct types of traditional lifestyles: nomadic (bedu) and settled (hadhr) Arabs.

The bedu moved constantly in search of grazing for their camels and goats, and in the Emirates typically moved in winter towards the coast, and in the summer to the cooler oases. While some bedu travelled continuously, many were semi-nomadic in that they regularly returned to a permanent settlement. The bedu earned income through the sale of camels and their products, by transporting people and goods across the deserts, by providing security for desert caravans, and by undertaking seasonal employment like manning the pearling boats which went to sea over summer. As bedu could raid settlements and provide protection from other raiders, some bedu tribes collected tribute from settled groups in return for security.

Rather than being powerless in the face of the bedu, settled Arabs could exert power over nomadic groups by controlling access to water and other vital resources, as well as creating rivalry between bedu groups through the ability to make loyalty payments, alliances with external powers and other tactics. The prominent section/tribe of a settled group would generally seek to establish alliances with bedu groups for mutual advantage. These could