Office of the Historian

448. Telegram From the Department of State to the Mission to the European Office of the United Nations1

Washington, May 25, 1967, 8:57 p.m.

202562. For Tubby and Sieverts. Ref: Geneva 3809.2

1.
Information in paragraph 2 may be passed to selected ICRC officials on a non-attributable basis and cannot be further disseminated or used publicly.
2.
Begin non-attributable information: Following are UAR gas attacks reportedly carried out in Yemen since January 1, 1967: (a) January 5 attack on Kitaf in which 155 people and many animals allegedly were killed and more than 40 people injured. (b) May 6 attack on Bait Maran in which 2 people killed and 15 injured. (c) May 11 attack on Gahr and Gadafa where 51 and 24 respectively were reported killed. (d) May 17 attack on Gadafa where 100 people hiding in cave allegedly were killed. (e) week of May 14-20 attacks at villages of Naugher, Queais, and Kor in the Arhab and Khaulan areas. International Red Cross official said total casualties in those three villages plus Gahr and Gadafa during week were 243. There is corroborative evidence that on at least one occasion a highly lethal nerve gas agent was present in the area attacked. Mustard and perhaps phosgene may also have been used. End classified non-attributable information.
3.
Information this paragraph can be published. Following are examples of press and radio mention which has been made of UAR attacks: (a) UPI January 31 said correspondent John Lawton and other Western correspondents who visited site of the Kitaf attack believed there was little doubt gas had been used. Yemeni reports claimed 150 people were killed. (b) A Yemeni royalist radio broadcast heard February 12 claimed on February 8 UAR aircraft dropped gas bombs on Bani Salab village and killed 75 people and 40 sheep. (c) Reuters reported February 17 a Yemeni soldier alleged 19 people were injured and 32 killed during a UAR gas attack on royalist positions at Bayt Al-Suraym between Sanaa and Hodeidah February 6. (d) Spokesman for royalist forces in Yemen stated during broadcast from Jidda February 15 that on February 5 UAR aircraft used poison gas bombs for second time in Anis area. (e) Jidda press May 14 carried royalist report UAR planes made poison gas attack on May 11 on the Yemeni town of Hairan, northeast of Sanaa, leaving 75 dead. (f) Jidda paper al-Nadwa quoting royalist command reported May 18 that UAR planes attacked [Page 836] a village 30 kilometers from Sanaa on May 16. (g) According to Reuters, South Arabian Broadcasting Service announced May 20 that UAR bombers using high explosives and poison gas raided royalist villages of Bayt Ghadir, Bayt Jabas, and Nawfal 20 miles north of Sanaa on May 18 and killed 38 people. Begin FYI. In case you are asked about New York Daily News erroneous story May 20 reporting that US officials have evidence poison gas bombs dropped in an attack on Najran and Jizan “last weekend” bore markings indicating Russian origin, no evidence gas employed in Saudi Arabia. Story said scientists were seeking to determine whether “as suspected, the gas was a new kind of nerve gas,” also stated “it has been established that phosgene gas was the lethal agent in the earlier attacks.” The article said officials believed the gas used on Najran and Jizan was “a much more modern type of lethal agent and was being used for experimental purposes by Communist scientists.” End FYI.
Rusk
  1. Source: National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Central Files 1967-69, POL 27-10 YEMEN. Secret; Priority; Exdis.↩
  2. See footnote 2, Document 447.↩