Saleh Ali al-Ashwal
| Saleh Ali al-Ashwal | |
|---|---|
| Native name | صالح علي الأشول |
| Born | 1938 Sanaa, North Yemen |
| 💀Died | 2005 Sanaa, Yemen2005 |
| 💼 Occupation | Military officer; revolutionary; diplomat; statesman |
| Known for | Senior organizer in Yemen's Free Officers and role in the 1962 Yemeni revolution; later service as ambassador and member of the Shura Council |
Saleh Ali al-Ashwal (Arabic: صالح علي الأشول; 1938–2005) was a Yemeni military officer and revolutionary who emerged as one of the core organizers of the clandestine Free Officers that planned and launched the 1962 Yemeni revolution.[1][2] He subsequently held state positions in the Yemen Arab Republic and, after unification, served in diplomacy and on the national Shura Council.[3][4]
Early career
Details of al-Ashwal’s early life are sparsely published in open sources. He rose through the North Yemeni Army’s junior officer ranks during the late 1950s and early 1960s, a cohort that incubated the clandestine Free Officers network opposed to the Hamid al-Din imamate.[1]
Free Officers and the September 1962 revolution
Contemporary accounts and later recollections identify al-Ashwal as a principal organizer and member of successive leadership committees of the Free Officers from December 1961 through September 1962. According to a detailed chronology drawing on his own narrative, he was elected to the first five-man leadership committee at the movement’s founding (10 December 1961), re-elected in March and June 1962, and again in early September 1962 when the committee was expanded to direct final preparations for the uprising.[1][5]
During the night of 25–26 September 1962, al-Ashwal commanded a detachment tasked with seizing Radio Sana'a. Multiple narratives of the operation state that forces under his command—supported by a tank and an armored car—secured the station with only limited skirmishing, enabling the early-morning broadcast that proclaimed the republic.[6] Additional summaries of the Free Officers’ operational plan for the night likewise attribute the radio assignment to al-Ashwal’s group.[7]
State service and diplomacy
Following the establishment of the Yemen Arab Republic, al-Ashwal served as a member of the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC).[3] After Yemeni unification (1990), he entered diplomatic service and is documented as Yemen’s ambassador accredited to the European Communities in 1992, meeting the President of the European Parliament that December.[4] He was later appointed to the Shura Council and took part in its work in the 2000s.[3]
Publications
- "حقائق ثورة سبتمبر اليمنية (Facts of the Yemeni September Revolution). Sanaʿa: al-Afif, 2001. ISBN —. A Yemeni higher-education union catalogue lists the work (Arabic; 310 pp.).[8]
Death and legacy
An official obituary described al-Ashwal—styled at the time as a general (al-liwāʾ)—as “one of the nation’s loyal sons,” noting his roles as a former RCC member and member of the Shura Council.[3] Modern historiography of the revolution frequently cites his account when reconstructing the Free Officers’ internal organization and the events of the uprising’s first night.[1]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 al-Tayyib, Bilal (26 September 2022). "تنظيم الضباط الأحرار.. من أول اجتماع حتى أول طلقة". 26 سبتمبر نت (in العربية).
وقد كانت رواية العميد صالح علي الأشول – أحد قادة ذلك التنظيم الفاعلين – الأكثر وضوحًا…
- ↑ Orkaby, Asher Aviad (2014). The International History of the Yemen Civil War, 1962–1968 (PhD dissertation). Harvard University. Retrieved 2025-09-28.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "فخامة رئيس الجمهورية يشارك في تشييع المناضل صالح الأشول". Yemen National Information Center (in العربية).
المناضل الكبير اللواء صالح علي الأشول عضو مجلس قيادة الثورة السابق عضو مجلس الشورى.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "EP President Egon Klepsch meets with the Ambassador of Yemen Saleh Ali Al ASHWAL". European Parliament Multimedia. December 1992.
- ↑ "الأوضاع السياسية في اليمن 1962–1967م" [The political situation in Yemen 1962–1967]. Journal of Tikrit University for Humanities (in العربية). 29 (8 (Part 2)): 212. 2022. doi:10.25130/jtuh.29.8.2.2022.12. Retrieved 2025-09-28.
- ↑ "بُناة الفجر الذين مرّغوا وجه الإمامة: تفاصيل الليلة الأولى للثورة". المنتصف نت (in العربية). 26 September 2022.
توجهت قوات بقيادة الملازم صالح الأشول للسيطرة على الإذاعة… لتبدأ صنعاء بحلول الساعة السابعة صباحًا بثها الإذاعي معلنة قيام الجمهورية.
- ↑ "24 ساعة تفصلنا عن ساعة الصفر لثورة (26) سبتمبر العظيم". صحافة أونلاين (in العربية).
وبحسب مذكرات العميد صالح الأشول… السيطرة على الإذاعة…
- ↑ "حقائق ثورة سبتمبر اليمنية". Union OPAC for Yemeni academic libraries (in العربية). Center for IT in Higher Education. 2001.
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