Black September (Jordan)

Black September أيلول الأسود
Part of the Arab Cold War
Smoke rises over Amman during clashes between the Jordanian army and the fedayeen, 1 October 1970.
Date 6 September 1970–17 July 1971 (main phase 16–27 September 1970) Location Jordan Result Jordanian military victory: Syrian raid repelled PLO driven out to Lebanon, eventually leading to the Lebanese Civil War Formation of the Black September Organization
Belligerents
PLO Fatah PFLP DFLP  Syria PLA	Jordan (JAF)
Commanders and leaders
Yasser Arafat Khalil Al-Wazir Abu Ali Iyad George Habash Nayef Hawatmeh Salah Jadid	King Hussein Habis Al-Majali Zaid ibn Shaker Wasfi Al-Tal Zia-ul-Haq
Strength
15,000–40,000 10,000 300 tanks (two armoured, one mechanized infantry brigade)	65,000–74,000
Casualties and losses
PLO: 3,400 dead Syria: 600 Syrian casualties (dead and injured) 120 tanks and APCs lost	Jordan: 537 dead

Jordanian military victory:

PLO

 Syria

Black September (Arabic: أيلول الأسود‎‎; Aylūl Al-Aswad) also known as the Jordanian Civil War was the conflict fought between the Jordanian Armed Forces (JAF), under the leadership of King Hussein, and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), under the leadership of Yasser Arafat, primarily between 16 and 27 September 1970, with certain actions continuing until 17 July 1971.

After Jordan lost control of the West Bank in 1967, Palestinian fighters (fedayeen, meaning self-sacrificers) moved their bases to Jordan and stepped up their attacks on Israel and Israeli-occupied territories. One Israeli retaliation on a PLO camp based in Karameh, a borderline Jordanian town along the border with the West Bank, developed into a full-scale battle. The perceived joint Jordanian-Palestinian victory in the 1968 Battle of Karameh, led to an upsurge in Arab support for the Palestinian fighters in Jordan. PLO's strength in Jordan grew, and by the beginning of 1970, the groups had started to openly call for the overthrow of the Hashemite monarchy. Acting as a state within a state, the fedayeen disregarded local laws and regulations, and even attempted to assassinate King Hussein twice—leading to violent confrontations between them and the Jordanian army. Hussein wanted to oust the fedayeen from the country, but hesitated to strike because he did not want to be seen as "massacring the Palestinians". PLO actions in Jordan culminated in the Dawson's Field hijackings incident of 10 September 1970, in which the fedayeen hijacked three civilian aircraft and forced their landing in Zarqa, taking foreign nationals as hostages, and later bombing the planes in front of international press. Hussein saw this as the last straw, and ordered the army to move.

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