The Second Battle of Amgala, also called Amgala II or Amgala 2, took place on 14 February 1976 in the

Amgala Amgala ( ar, أمگالة; ber, ⴰⵎⴳⴰⵍⴰ) is an oasis in Western Sahara. It is located between Tifariti and Smara, outside the Moroccan Wall in the area controlled by the Polisario. Western Sahara War Amgala was the scene of severa ...

Oasis in

Western Sahara Western Sahara ( '; ; ) is a disputed territory on the northwest coast and in the Maghreb region of North and West Africa. About 20% of the territory is controlled by the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), while the r ...

. It pitted the Moroccan troops, who lost Amgala, to the forces of the Sahrawi People's Liberation Army, the armed wing of the

Polisario Front The Polisario Front, Frente Polisario, Frelisario or simply Polisario, from the Spanish abbreviation of (Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Río de Oro), (in ar, rtl=yes, الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير الس� ...

, supported by the Algerian army. According to Maurice Barbier, the Moroccan garrison in the city was entirely decimated.

Background

This battle followed the

first battle of Amgala The First Battle of Amgala was fought between 27 and 29 January 1976 around the oasis of Amgala, Western Sahara, about west of the border with Algeria. Units from the Algerian Army were attacked by units from the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces on ...

, which pitted the Moroccan army against the Algerian army for the first time from 27 to 29 January 1976.

Battle

According to Maurice Barbier and Ahmed Baba Miské, the fighting took place during the night of February 14 to 15, 1976, with strong units attacking the Moroccan troops in the city after its recovery. Shortly after the start of the attack, Moroccan reinforcements left the town of Smara but were unable to counter-attack.''La polémique continue entre Alger et Rabat sur la seconde bataille d'Amgala''
nbsp;– Lemonde.fr According to the writer Ahmed Baba Miské, the Moroccan garrison was totally destroyed.

Controversy over the presence of Algerian troops

According to the statements of

King Hassan II Hassan II ( ar, الحسن الثاني, translit=al-Ḥasan aṯ-ṯhānī;), with the prefix "Mulay" before his enthronement 9 July 1929 – 23 July 1999) was the List of rulers of Morocco, King of Morocco from 1961 until his death in 1999. H ...

, Algerian troops participated directly in the second battle of Amgala. But at the time, “P.M.D.", a Journalist at

Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...

, and the French political scientist Maurice Barbier considers "plausible" the Algerian version of an attack carried out only by the Polisario without the participation of Algerian soldiers.''Qui a repris Amgala?''
nbsp;– Lemonde.fr However, sources within the Algerian army claim that Algerian soldiers donned Polisario military uniforms and captured the town alone. The two battles of Amgala raised fears of a confrontation between Morocco and Algeria, a prospect that gradually faded in April 1976.

References

{{Reflist History of Western Sahara Amgala 1976 1976 in Spanish Sahara 1976 in Morocco 1976 in Algeria Algeria–Morocco relations Amgala 1976 Amgala 1976 Amgala 1976 January 1976 events in Africa