Editing Yemeni Armed Forces (section)

===Early beginnings===
The origins of the modern-day Yemeni military can be traced back to the late 19th century when [[Ottoman Turks|Turkish Ottomans]] began recruiting tribal levies to create four battalions of gendarmerie and three cavalry regiments. In 1906, the [[Italian Armed Forces|Italians]] recruited thousands of [[Yemenis]] and gave them military training in [[Italian Somaliland]] before sending them to [[Libya]] to fight the [[Senussi]] insurgency of 1911. Aware of the gains made by the Hashemites in the course of the Arab revolt, a combination of these forces - all of which held strong ties to various local tribes - rebelled against the Ottoman rule in Yemen during the First World War. Although nowhere near as famous as the uprising involving Thomas E. Lawrence - "Lawrence of Arabia" - the Yemen revolt led to the withdrawal of the Turkish military. After officially declaring independence from the Turkish Ottomans in 1918, Yemen was only internationally recognized in 1926. By that time, Imam Yahya kept a cadre of 300 Ottoman officers and soldiers to train his army, which - while remaining an outgrowth of the tribal levies that functioned as little more than a palace guard - was officially organized as follows:

*Special Imamate Guard: nominally a 5,000-strong unit of specially selected combatants named "Ukfa" considered absolutely loyal to the monarch;
*The Outback Army: this up to 50,000-strong force consisted of Zaidi tribesmen - infantry and cavalry - that served for one or two years, but brought their own rifles and provisions;
*The al-Army: established in 1919, this consisted of several groups of tribal levies. Each tribe included a retainer who reported on the behavior, awards, and misdeeds of members of his tribe; if a member of the tribal levy stole, or left without permission, the retainer and tribal chief compensated the imam for the loss;
*The Defensive Army: established in 1936, this was a draft of all able-bodied men - including urban Yemenis - capable of bearing arms and given six months of military training. With all members of the Defensive Army receiving periodic training for 10 years after their draft, this became a form of a reserve army.

During the early 1920s, an ammunition factory was constructed in Sana'a by a Yugoslavian (or German) and an Australian. After his army performed dismally in fierce clashes with the British and in the 1934 Saudi–Yemeni war, the Imam saw the need to modernize and expand the armed forces eventually purchasing from Italy six tanks, 2,000 rifles, four anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) pieces and some communications gear, while Iraq provided additional rifles and communications equipment. Italy also opened a flight school in Sana'a. In 1954 Imam Ahmad also established military cooperation with Egypt, and Cairo donated a total of four cannons, six heavy machine guns, 12 light machine guns and 20 rifles to Sana'a, deploying four Egyptian army officers to serve as instructors.<ref name="grounds"/>