Abdullah Yahya al-Sallal was a Yemeni military officer who was the leader of the North Yemeni Revolution of 1962 and served as the first President of the Yemen Arab Republic from 27 September 1962 until his removal on 5 November 1967. It was his government that abolished slavery in Yemen.
Al-Sallal in 1963
Abdullah al-Sallal in a military display, March 1963
Al-Sallal with Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser in a joint meeting, July 1964
The North Yemen civil war was a civil war fought in North Yemen from 1962 to 1970 between partisans of the Mutawakkilite Kingdom and supporters of the Yemen Arab Republic. The war began with a coup d'état carried out in 1962 by revolutionary republicans led by the army under the command of Abdullah as-Sallal. He dethroned the newly crowned King and Imam Muhammad al-Badr and declared Yemen a republic under his presidency. His government abolished slavery in Yemen. The Imam escaped to the Saudi Arabian border where he rallied popular support from northern Zaydi tribes to retake power, and the conflict escalated rapidly to a full-scale civil war.
Royalist Yemeni forces attempt to repel an Egyptian armored attack
Yemeni tribesmen who supported al-Badr
Yemeni tribesman being held as a hostage by al-Badr forces
Muhammad al-Badr praying with his guards.