Moroccan Military Strikes Polisario Targets Near Southern Border, Reports Say

Has Morocco carried out its threat? Responding to deputies’ questions about the Smara attacks claimed by the Polisario in November last year, Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita recalled that Morocco had "firmly condemned" this act and complained to the United Nations about it. He had also made it known that the kingdom "will determine when and how it will respond to terrorist attacks against the city of Smara," assuring that it is "not in the escalation" and will act "with wisdom and determination." Following a meeting between the UN Secretary-General’s personal envoy to Western Sahara, Staffan de Mistura, Bourita had deplored the lack of a serious process. "There is no serious process, while the ceasefire violation by the Polisario militias continues daily," the minister had denounced.

On Friday, a Moroccan drone is said to have targeted a gathering of suspicious vehicles near the buffer zone, about 3 kilometers from the Moroccan-Mauritanian border. According to pages affiliated with the Polisario, the military operation resulted in the death of several people and the destruction of a convoy of vehicles attempting to penetrate the buffer zones. The killed persons would be Polisario militiamen. For now, the Moroccan authorities have not confirmed the attack.