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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Jordan
Index
Soldier firing a mortar
Cobra attack helicopter armed with TOW antitank
missiles of the Royal Jordanian Air Force
When the Amirate of Transjordan was formed in 1921, the small
scattered police elements left over from Ottoman days were
inadequate to maintain order and establish central government
control. The police units were expanded, and a small mobile force
of balanced elements of infantry, cavalry, and artillery was
created. Two years later the police, numbering about 300, and the
military force of about 1,000 were combined under the command of
British Captain F.G. Peake. The establishment was originally known
as the Arab Army (Al Jaysh al Arabi)--a perpetuation of the
military force led by the Hashimites in World War I against the
Turks--and this Arabic title has been retained. In English,
however, the name became the Arab Legion, a designation that lasted
until 1956
(see Transjordan
, ch. 1).
Data as of December 1989
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