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The Army of Liberation (French, Armée de Libération, Arabic, jayshu-t-tahrīr,Spanish Ejercito de Liberacion) 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"^{[citation needed]}, also known as the Southern Liberation Army (Armée de Libération du Sud), sometimes abbreviated as ALS.

The revolt in the Spanish Sahara was put down in 1958 by a joint French and Spanish offensive, known as Operation Ecouvillon or Operation Ecouvillon-Teide. Upong their retreat, the guerrilla fighters were, surprisingly, hindered by the regular Moroccan Army, which allowed Spanish and French forces to neutralize them ^[1][2]. The King of Morocco then signed an agreement with the Spanish, wherein 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^{[citation needed]}, 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^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] See also

• Military history of Morocco
• Ifni War

[edit] References