In the year 1934 a coterie of young men launched the literary magazine Al-Fajr and marked the beginning of the first literarily conscious movement in the Sudan. Both movement and initiators have come to be known by the name of the magazine itself. In this thesis the first attempt to study the Al-Fajr group (or movement) has been made. The study investigates the general and special circumstances in which the Group were nurtured, the private gatherings which led to their appearance and the value of their contribution to modern Arabic literature, with particular reference to their critical and poetic works. In chapter one a survey of the Sudanese literary heritage, including popular and classical literature to the appearance of the Al-Fajr group, has been carried out. This chapter provides the necessary literary background to the Al-Fajr movement. Chapter two traces the literary origins of the Group and describes the evolutionary factors which led to their appearance. Chapter three is devoted to a description of the magazine Al-Fajr; its objective and policy, its collection and the general features of its writings. In chapter four the literary ideas of the Group have been examined and the theoretical and practical aspects of their criticism have been studied. The final chapter deals with the poetry of the Group. It attempts to analyse the content of this poetry, study its form and assess its value in terms of innovation and rejuvenation. The appendix is supplementary to the final chapter. It contains the Arabic text of the poems which have been studied in this chapter.

Urban operations is one of the most difficult challenges a modern army can be tasked with. These challenges have been studied in history and present with various perspectives, but rarely from a combat engineering point of view. The purpose of this thesis has been to study the urban capabilities of a Swedish combat engineer company by examining if it can perform similar combat engineering fieldwork that supported the basic capabilities mobility, defence and effect in Operation AL FAJR, Fallujah Iraq 2004. These are the capabilities a Swedish engineer company are primarily designed to support in urban operations. For example, the study of Operation AL FAJR has shown that fieldwork supported mobility with breaching minefields, obstacles, walls and doors. Defence by creating defensive positions and obstacles. Effect by destroying weapons caches and fortified buildings with bulldozers and explosives.  The results of this study indicates that a Swedish combat engineer company has the capability to perform most of the fieldwork performed in Operation AL FAJR. However, the company lacks capability to destroy fortified buildings and perform explosive mine and obstacle breaching, all examples on fieldwork performed in AL FAJR. / Operationer i bebyggelse är kanske en av de svåraste utmaningar en modern armé kan ställas inför. Dessa utmaningar har studerats i historien och i nutid med olika utgångspunkter, men väldigt sällan ur ett fältarbetsperspektiv. Syftet med det här arbetet har varit att studera de urbana förmågorna hos ett svenskt ingenjörkompani genom att undersöka om det kan utföra liknande fältarbeten som genomfördes för att stödja de grundläggande förmågorna rörlighet, skydd och verkan i Operation AL FAJR, Fallujah Iraq 2004. Dessa är de förmågor som ett svenskt ingenjörkompani huvudsakligen ska kunna understödja i urbana operationer. Studien av Operation AL FAJR har till exempel visat på att fältarbeten understödde rörlighet genom minbrytning, forcering av hinder och inbrytningar genom väggar och dörrar. Skydd genom att bygga stridsfordonsvärn. Verkan genom att förstöra vapengömmor samt förstöra byggnader och motståndsnästen med sprängmedel och bandschaktare. Resultatet av det här arbetet tyder på att ett svenskt ingenjörkompani har förmåga till att genomföra huvuddelen av de fältarbeten som förekom i Operation AL FAJR. Dock saknar kompaniet till exempel förmåga för att förstöra motståndsnästen och genomföra explosiv hinderröjning och minbrytning, samtliga exempel på fältarbeten som förekom i AL FAJR.

The two battles for Fallujah took place in 2004. Earlier research states that air power was a key reason for the success following the second operation, and as a critical omission during the first operation. Following this statement that air power changed the way urban operations should be conducted it should be possible to use an air power theory to explain the different outcomes of the battles. The purpose of this study is to see if Robert Pape’s theory of denial strategy is applicable as an explanation for the two operations differences of outcome.   The method used for this study is a comparative case study of the two operations in which the operations are compared by analysing then using the framework of Pape’s theory.    The result of this study shows that the outcomes partly can be explained from Pape’s theory, but the results differ between the two components which leads to a discussion of what this means for the theory. The result contributes to the existing research and gives reason for criticism of the earlier research which states that it was Close Air Support (CAS) that was successful during the second operation. This study shows that CAS was mostly used during the first operation and only partly used during the second, successful, operation. This study states that it was the use of operative interdiction, one of the three components of Pape’s theory, which led to the second operations success.