(Redirected from Saharan Liberation Army)
'The Army of Liberation' (
French, ''Armée de Libération'',
Arabic, ''jayshu-t-tahrīr'') was a force fighting for the
independence of
Morocco.
In 1956, units of the Army began infiltrating
Ifni and other enclaves of
Spanish Morocco, as well as
Spanish Sahara (today
Western Sahara), to claim them as part of
Morocco. Initially, they received important backing from the Moroccan government. In the Spanish Sahara, the Army rallied
Sahrawi tribes along the way, and triggered a
large-scale rebellion. In early 1958, the Moroccan king reorganized the Army of Liberation units fighting in the Spanish Sahara as the "Saharan Liberation Army".
The revolt in the
Spanish Sahara was put down in 1958 by a joint
French and Spanish offensive. The
King of Morocco then signed an agreement with the Spanish, where Spain returned the province of Tarfaya to Morocco. Part of the Army of Liberation was absorbed into the Moroccan armed forces.
Morocco sees the Army of Liberation battles in Western Sahara, and the fighting under Moroccan flag of Sahrawis as a proof of Western Sahara's loyalty to the Moroccan crown, whereas sympathizers to the
Polisario Front view it only as an anti-colonial war directed against
Spanish. Sahrawi veterans of the Army of Liberation today exist on both sides of the Western Sahara conflict, and both the
Kingdom of Morocco and the
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic celebrate it as part of their political history. Some parents of founder members of Polisario were members of the Army of Liberation, most notably the father of
Mohammed Abdelaziz the president of
Polisario and the
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, who is living in Morocco and is a member of
CORCAS.
See also
★
Military history of Morocco
★
Ifni War
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