International Incidents
On 24 June 1975, a Land Rover of the Spanish Army struck a land mine as it was patrolling the Spanish Sahara-Morocco border, killing the five soldiers inside.
On 25 June 1975, two reconnaissance planes from the Spanish Air Force were attacked by Moroccan forces near the Spanish Sahara-Morocco border.
On 17 January 1980, the Spanish SPS Almirante Ferrandiz (D22) destroyer was machine-gunned by a Moroccan Mirage airfighter, 5 miles away the southern coast of Western Sahara. The Spanish destroyer had received a S.O.S. from a Spanish fishing vessel that had been previously detained by a Moroccan patrol boat.
On 24 February 1985, the Polar 3, a Dornier 228-type research airplane from the Alfred Wegener Institute was shot down by guerrillas of the Polisario Front over Western Sahara. All three crew members died. Polar 3, together with unharmed Polar 2, was on its way back from Antarctica and had taken off in Dakar, Senegal, to reach Arrecife, Canary Islands. The German government, which did not recognize Morocco's claim to Western Sahara at the time and remained neutral in the conflict, heavily criticized the incident.
In 1984, Polisario shot down two Moroccan and a Belgian airplane as well.
Read more about this topic: Western Sahara War
Famous quotes containing the word incidents:
“An element of exaggeration clings to the popular judgment: great vices are made greater, great virtues greater also; interesting incidents are made more interesting, softer legends more soft.”
—Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)