Moroccan Drone Strike Kills Four Polisario Front Leaders in Western Sahara

The Polisario announced that it lost four leaders on Friday who were carrying out attacks against the Moroccan royal armed forces in the buffer zone, in the Sahara. "The commander of the sixth military region, Abba Ali Hamudi, a member of the Polisario National Secretariat, fell on the field of honor with three other fighters," announced the Polisario agency, SPS. The three other fighters are: Bashir Said Llyamam, brigade commander, Hamadi Belaid, former "Minister of Education" secretary general and Salama Al-Mahdi Sidi Al-Arabi, wireless communications specialist.

"Following clashes in the Mahbes region, the Moroccan air force retaliated using two Israeli-made drones," reports the Sahrawi news site Ecsaharaui. These new clashes come on the sidelines of the visit of a US delegation, led by Joshua Harris, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for North Africa, as part of efforts to revive the UN-sponsored peace process in the Sahara.

In April 2021, a strike launched by a Moroccan drone had killed Addah Al-Bendir, head of the separatist movement’s gendarmerie in the Ross Irni area of Tifariti. That same year, sources close to the Polisario reported that two of the movement’s soldiers had been killed by Moroccan troops on Monday, December 13.