National Democratic Front for the Liberation of Oman and the Arab Gulf

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NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC FRONT FOR THE LIBERATION OF OMAN AND THE ARAB GULF

radical antigovernment organization (19701971), known as ndfloag.

NDFLOAG was formed in June 1970 by the merger of several small groups of foreign-educated Omanis. The front's members, fewer than a hundred, were united by shared antipathy for the reactionary sultan, Saʿid bin Taymur Al Bu Saʿid. Their aim was to carry out attacks on the government in northern Oman paralleling those that had been launched by the Popular Front for the Liberation of the Occupied Arabian Gulf (PFLOAG) in Dhufar in the south. Mortar assaults on garrisons at Nizwa and Izki failed, and most of the perpetrators were captured. The attacks, however, caused Omani supporters of the government, as well as its British protectors, to fear that rebellion could spread throughout the country. This fear led them to work with Saʿid's son, Qabus ibn Saʿid Al Bu Saʿid, to overthrow his father in July 1970. In December 1971 NDFLOAG, reduced to impotence, was absorbed by PFLOAG, which changed its name (but not its acronym) and became the Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman and the Arab Gulf.

see also popular front for the liberation of the occupied arabian gulf.


Bibliography


Allen, Calvin H., Jr. Oman: The Modernization of the Sultanate. Boulder, CO: Westview Press; London: Croom Helm, 1987.

malcolm c. peck

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National Democratic Front for the Liberation of Oman and the Arab Gulf

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National Democratic Front for the Liberation of Oman and the Arab Gulf