The Battle of Mahbes was fought on 12 January 1985 during the

Western Sahara War The Western Sahara War (, , ) was an armed conflict between the Sahrawi indigenous Polisario Front and Morocco from 1975 to 1991 (and Mauritania from 1975 to 1979), being the most significant phase of the Western Sahara conflict. The confl ...

. As part of its Grand-Maghreb offensive, the

Polisario Front The Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Río de Oro (Spanish language, Spanish: ; ), better known by its acronym Polisario Front, is a Sahrawi nationalism, Sahrawi nationalist liberation movement seeking to end the occupatio ...

, with heavy means (tanks and ground-to-air missiles), breaks through the wall of sand defended by the Royal Moroccan armed forces.

Background

The town of

Al Mahbes Al Mahbes () is a town in the UN-monitored buffer zone of Western Sahara, near the Algerian border, some northeast of Bir Lehlou. Mahbes' partner municipalities are the Spanish city of Noia and the Italian municipalities of Sesto Fiorentino and ...

is located behind the 4th sand wall which was being completed. Polisario forces in this regions was pushed back into their Algerian bases. They will make one last attempt to break through this confinement. According to the Moroccan Army, the

engaged three motorised battalions (on Land Rover), one battalion of

T-55 The T-54 and T-55 tanks are a series of Soviet medium tanks introduced in the years following the Second World War. The first T-54 prototype was completed at Nizhny Tagil by the end of 1945.Steven Zaloga, T-54 and T-55 Main Battle Tanks 1944–2 ...

tanks and one mechanised battalion on

BMP-1 The BMP-1 is a Soviet Union, Soviet Amphibious vehicle, amphibious tracked infantry fighting vehicle that has been in service from 1966 to the present. BMP stands for ''Boyevaya Mashina Pyekhoty 1'' (), meaning "infantry fighting vehicle, 1st ...

Battle

The Polisario Front attacked a Moroccan detachment participating in the construction of the wall north of Wadi Tenuechad, 8 kilometres from the Algerian border. The battle took place on a front of about fifteen kilometres from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. then, according to Morocco, the attackers withdrew towards Algeria. A Moroccan

Mirage F1 The Dassault Mirage F1 is a French fighter and attack aircraft designed and manufactured by Dassault Aviation. It was developed as a successor to the Mirage III family. During the 1960s, Dassault commenced development of what would become t ...

fighter jet was shot down by Sahrawi 2K12 Kub missile. Morocco claimed that it was fired "from a bordering territory", alluding to Algeria.

Casualties and consequences

Morocco announces that the Polisario's losses are 66 men, 6 T-55s, 2 BMP-1s and 6 other vehicles. Rabat acknowledges that 25 Moroccan soldiers were killed and 48 wounded, while the Polisario communiqué announces the death of 311 soldiers, the capture of 3 other soldiers and the destruction of 17 tanks, 14 armored personnel carriers and 21 other royal vehicles. This attack showed that the Polisario were still capable of launching heavy attacks and that the Moroccan defense wall was not impassable.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:al-Mahbes, 1985 Al Mahbes 1985 Al Mahbes 1985 1985 in Morocco Battles involving Polisario Front 1985 in Western Sahara Battles in 1985