Attack on Lebouirate | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of Western Sahara War | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
Polisario Front | Morocco | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Lahbib Ayoub | Mohamed Azelmat [3] | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
150 [4] | 600-780 [5] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Sixty-six Sahrawi citizens were released |
|
The Attack on Lebouirate was a significant military engagement that took place during the ongoing Western Sahara conflict between the Moroccan government and the Polisario Front.
The Moroccan communiqué reported that the attack on Lebouirate was executed by Polisario guerrilla forces, who caught the garrison commander off guard. The commander abandoned his position, allowing the enemy to seize control of the attacked locality, which they held throughout August 24. The Moroccan troops suffered a serious defeat as a large number of defenders at the base were massacred during the attack. [8]
Two days after the incident, the Moroccan ministry of information officially admitted the fall of the Lebouirate base. Squadron Leader Azelmat, who commanded the garrison, was criticized for failing to offer adequate resistance to the attacking Polisario forces. The lack of opposition resulted in the abandonment of defensive positions and the loss of a significant amount of military equipment. [8]
Le plus important fut la défaite marocaine de Lebouiraite...
Selon le Front Polisario, de lourdes pertes auraient été infligées aux Marocains : 92 morts...
sahraoui avait d'abord fait état, à Alger, de deux cent trente Marocains tués dans la colonne envoyée en renfort.
Moktar Ould Daddah was a Mauritanian politician who led the country after it gained its independence from France. Moktar served as the country's first Prime Minister from 1957 to 1961 and as its first President of Mauritania, a position he held from 1960 until he was deposed in a military coup d'etat in 1978.
Mahfoud Ali Beiba Hammad Dueihi was a Sahrawi politician and co-founder of the Polisario Front, a national liberation movement that seeks self-determination for Western Sahara. From 1975 until his death, he lived in an exile in the refugee camps of Tindouf, Algeria.
Tiris al-Gharbiyya was the name for the area of Western Sahara under Mauritanian control between 1975 and 1979.
Since the end of the 1980s, several members of POLISARIO have decided to discontinue their military or political activities for the Polisario Front. Most of them returned from the Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria to Morocco, among them a few founder members and senior officials. Some of them are now actively promoting Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, which Morocco considers its Southern Provinces. Their individual reasons to stop working for POLISARIO, as reported in the media, vary, but include allegations of human rights violations, monopolization and abuse of power, blackmailing and sequestering the refugee population in Tindouf, and squandering foreign aid. They also claim POLISARIO is controlled by the government of Algeria and as one former member of POLISARIO put it, "[was] a group of Moroccan students who were urging the Spanish colonizer to leave and who had never claimed independence or the separation from motherland Morocco."
The Western Sahara War was an armed struggle between the Sahrawi indigenous Polisario Front and Morocco from 1975 to 1991, being the most significant phase of the Western Sahara conflict. The conflict erupted after the withdrawal of Spain from the Spanish Sahara in accordance with the Madrid Accords, by which it transferred administrative control of the territory to Morocco and Mauritania, but not sovereignty. In late 1975, the Moroccan government organized the Green March of some 350,000 Moroccan citizens, escorted by around 20,000 troops, who entered Western Sahara, trying to establish a Moroccan presence. While at first met with just minor resistance by the Polisario Front, Morocco later engaged a long period of guerrilla warfare with the Sahrawi nationalists. During the late 1970s, the Polisario Front, desiring to establish an independent state in the territory, attempted to fight both Mauritania and Morocco. In 1979, Mauritania withdrew from the conflict after signing a peace treaty with the Polisario Front. The war continued in low intensity throughout the 1980s, though Morocco made several attempts to take the upper hand in 1989–1991. A cease-fire agreement was finally reached between the Polisario Front and Morocco in September 1991. Some sources put the final death toll between 10,000 and 20,000 people.
Sahrawi nationality law is the law of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic's (SADR) governing nationality and citizenship. The SADR is a partially recognized state which claims sovereignty over the entire territory of Western Sahara, but only administers part of it. The SADR also administers Sahrawi refugee camps.
Mohamed-Fadel Ould Ismail Ould Es-Sweyih was a Sahrawi nationalist politician, member of the Polisario Front. He was a prominent member of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic diplomatic corps, holding several posts as SADR ambassador or Polisario Front representative.
The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) was proclaimed by the Polisario Front on 27 February 1976, in Bir Lehlu, Western Sahara. SADR claims sovereignty over the entire territory of Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony; however, at present the SADR government controls approximately 20–25% of the territory it claims. It calls the territories under its control the "Liberated Territories", whilst Morocco claims its territories as the "Southern Provinces".
The 1989 Battle of Haouza was an armed confrontation in the Western Sahara War that took place on 11 October 1989, when Polisario Front troops attacked the Moroccan Wall in North Africa's Haouza region. The attack was seen as a POLISARIO response to the delay of the peace conversations with Morocco, and the declarations of Hassan II denying another encounter with Sahrawi representatives.
The First Battle of Amgala was fought between 27 and 29 January 1976 around the oasis of Amgala, Western Sahara, about 260 kilometres (160 mi) west of the border with Algeria. Units from the Algerian Army were attacked by units from the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces on the night of 27 January. The Algerians withdrew after fighting for 36 hours. However, the retaliation came fairly soon, between 13 and 15 February 1976 Polisario units defeated Moroccan troops in the second Battle of Amgala.
The General Directorate for Studies and Documentation is the foreign intelligence agency of Morocco, under authority of the Administration for National Defense. It is officially tasked with maintaining national security and the safety of national institutions.
The battle of Gueltat Zemmur occurred between 13 and 29 October 1981 when Polisario Front attacked the very small Moroccan garrison at Guelta Zemmur in Western Sahara. Using heavy military equipment including tanks and surface-to-air missiles, the Polisario Front defeated the Moroccan garrison forces entrenched around the town. Three Moroccan planes were shot down, including a C-130 Hercules. Moroccan armed forces then aggressively counterattacked and drove the Polisario out of the town, causing significant casualties in the Polisario side.
The Second Battle of Amgala, also called Amgala II or Amgala 2, took place on 14 February 1976 in the Amgala Oasis in Western Sahara. It pitted the Moroccan troops, who lost Amgala, to the forces of the Sahrawi People's Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Polisario Front, supported by the Algerian army. According to Maurice Barbier, the Moroccan garrison in the city was entirely decimated.
The Battle of Mahbes was fought on 12 January 1985 during the Western Sahara War. As part of its Grand-Maghreb offensive, the Polisario Front, with heavy means, breaks through the wall of sand defended by the Royal Moroccan armed forces.
The Battle of Al Mahbes was fought on 14 October 1979 during the war in Western Sahara. The Polisario Front annihilated a battalion of the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces.
Clashes between military forces belonging to the Kingdom of Morocco and the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), represented at the United Nations by the Polisario Front, broke out in the disputed region of Western Sahara in November 2020. It was the latest escalation of an unresolved conflict over the region, which is largely occupied by Morocco, but 20–25% is administered by the SADR. The violence ended a ceasefire between the opposing sides that had held for 29 years in anticipation of a referendum of self-determination that would have settled the dispute. Despite the establishment of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara in 1991, the referendum was never held.
The Battle of Ain Ben Tili was launched by the Polisario Front on January 19, 1976. Situated in the northern region of Mauritania, Ain Ben Tili was located just a few kilometers away from the town of Bir Lehlou, near the border with Western Sahara. Following repeated Polisario attacks, Mauritanian troops withdrew from the town five days later.
The Attack on Tichla took place on July 12, 1979, in the town of Tichla, in Western Sahara. It marked the final engagement between Mauritania and Polisario before the peace treaty in Algiers and Mauritania's withdrawal from the Western Sahara War.
Youssef Jajili is a Moroccan journalist, producer, documentarian and TV personality. Jajili's career has included media, public relations, sports diplomacy, war reporting, global affairs, crisis communications and digital media. He appears frequently as a public speaker, presenter, and commentator on global affairs and Moroccan politics, and is a commentator on North African and Arab affairs.
The Battle of Smara occurred between October 5 and 8, 1979, during the Western Sahara War at Smara, between the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces and the Polisario Front. Both sides asserted divergent narratives of the battle.