Mohammed Oufkir
| Mohamed Oufkir | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | 1920 near Bouarfa, French protectorate in Morocco (now Morocco) |
| Died | 16 August 1972 |
| Cause of death | shot multiple times in the chest |
| Nationality | Moroccan |
| Known for | Assassination attempt on Hassan II |
General Mohammad Oufkir (Arabic: محمد أوفقير; 1920 − 16 August 1972) was a senior military Moroccan officer who held many important governmental posts. It is believed that he was assassinated for his alleged role in the failed 1972 Moroccan coup attempt.
Mohamed Oufkir is a native of Ain-Chair, in the Tafilalt region, the stronghold of high Atlas Moroccan Berbers, in the south-eastern Morocco, where his father was appointed pasha by Lyautey in 1910. His great-grandfather was from Sidi Bel Abbes in Algeria northwest.
He studied at the berber College of Azrou near Meknes. In 1939, he entered the Military Academy of Dar El Beida, and in 1941, he enlisted as a reserve lieutenant in the French army.
During World War II, he served with distinction in the French army (4th Regiment of Moroccan Tirailleurs) in Italy in 1944 where he won the Croix de Guerre. He was also awarded the Silver Star in 1944 by Major General Alfred M. Gruenther, general Clark's chief of staff, after the Battle of Monte Cassino. After the war, he fought with French forces in Vietnam from 1947 to 1949, where his bravery was dubbed "legendary". In 1949 he was promoted captain and named to the Legion d'Honneur.
As the right-hand man of King Hassan II in the 1960s and early 1970s, Oufkir led government supervision of politicians, unionists and the religious establishment. He forcefully repressed political protest through police and military clampdowns, pervasive government espionage, show trials, and numerous extralegal measures such as killings and forced disappearances. A feared figure in dissident circles, he was considered extraordinarily close to power. One of his most famous victims is believed to have been celebrated third-world politician Mehdi Ben Barka, who had "disappeared" in Paris in 1965. A French court convicted him of the murder.
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