The Army was still unable to deal with Talib's stronghold. The few paths up the Jebel Akhdar were far too narrow to deploy attacking battalions or even companies. One attempt was made against the southern face of the Jebel, using four infantry companies (including two companies from the Trucial Oman Scouts, from what would later become the United Arab Emirates). The attackers withdrew hastily after concluding they were vulnerable to being ambushed and cut off. In another attempt, infantry launched a feint and then withdrew while Avro Shackleton bombers of the RAF bombarded the supposedly massed defenders but they inflicted no casualties. De Havilland Venoms, flying from RAF Sharjah, were also used to bomb and strafe the mountainous strongholds of the rebels. For two years, rebel infiltrators continually mined the roads around the Jebel, and ambushed SAF and British detachments and oil company vehicles. The SAF were spread in small detachments in the towns and villages at the foot of the Jebel, and thus vulnerable and on the defensive. Their arms (mainly British weapons of World War II vintage) were less effective than the up-to-date equipment used by Talib's fighters. A SAF artillery unit, an all-Baluch unit under the control of Lieutenant Ashraf of the Pakistan Artillery, with two 5.5 inch medium guns harassed the settlements on the plateau on top of the Jebel Akhdar, but to little effect. RAF aircraft continued to attack the interior settlements on the plateau areas of the Jebel and remnants of these air attacks still exist - the wreckage of a crashed Venom FB4 jet and the grave of its pilot Flt Lt Clive Owen Watkinson, who was buried by the Omani locals, are located up on the Saiq Plateau.