File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [‎192r] (392/834)

Idrisi Defeat.
On Friday, June 7, a concentration of Turkish forces
attacked fdrisi’s army near Rassas (see sketch-map in our No.
90). Fighting continued all day, and on the morrow the enemy
was able to cross the wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. and capture Beit Husein. He is
reported to have lost heavily in doing so, but Idrisi’s army
suffered more severely, losing not only about forty killed, but
two guns. Pressing on, the Turks reoccupied el-Atan two days
later. This point commands the source of the main water
supply of Laheiya, and, evacuation of the latter town by the
Idrisi army, on the 11th, became inevitable. A Council of War
was to be held at once at Midi between our representatives, and
Seyyid Mustapha and Idrisi himself.
Pending further and more detailed information, we have
only to say that it appears, from Major Tippetts’ report, under
date May 28, from Laheiya, that this reverse seems to have
followed an attack made by the Idrisi troops, on May 31 or
June 1, on Beit Ahmed Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , a village on the southern edge of
the Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Mur valley. There is a good deal in the reports of
both Major Tippetts and Nasir ed-Din Ahmed, Political liaison
officer with Idrisi, to show that a reverse was not unlikely to
happen. Not only was shortage of ammunition and supplies
imminent more than a week before—largely due to prodigal
wastage by Idrisi’s uncontrolled levies—but the disposition of
Idrisi’s troops in small bodies, their licence to go off campaigning
where individual chiefs might think fit, and the inflated
incapacity of their generals, were bad signs. Seyyid Mustapha
himself is reported megalo-maniac and convinced (Luxor effendi
that he is !) of his strategic competence. He appears to have
taken very ill the advice and assistance which Colonel Bainbridge
offered him. The recent advance on Jebel Milh was wholly
unauthorized by the higher command and resulted in waste of
ammunition, very ill compensated b} 7 some seventeen 1 urkish
casualties. Major Tippetts states that the Laheiya townsfolk
were expressing a very low estimate of the fighting value of
Idrisi’s levies in their neighbourhood.
Yemen.
We have referred more than once (see e.g. pp. 156, 201)
to recent activity of the Yali of Sanaa in touring his province
and more particularly the Tihama part of it. His object has
been two fold (1) to raise money ; (2) to get recruits for the
“ milli ”, or Arab irregular, levies. We have already exposed
the serious financial situation of the Yemen on page lo6, and it
appears that the pay of all the troops is greatly in arrear. The
Yall’s representations to the towns and villages of the central
Tihama, from Bajil and Hodeida to Zebid, are said to have
produced very little money. As for Milli recruits, Ali Said
Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. is meeting with increasing difficulties in getting them