Operation “Qadar” 1979… When Morocco Decided the Fate of Oued Eddahab in Hours
ALDAR / Sara Loukili
On August 11, 1979, corresponding to the 18th of Ramadan 1399, a historic scene echoed across the skies of Dakhla — the Moroccan national flag rising over Oued Eddahab, announcing that the region had returned to the embrace of the motherland.
Following the Green March and the Madrid Agreement, Oued Eddahab remained under Mauritanian administration. However, the 1978 coup in Nouakchott paved the way for a surprising agreement between Mauritania and the Algeria-backed Polisario Front on August 5, 1979 — a move that Rabat considered a stab in the back.
Morocco’s response was decisive: a precise military operation dubbed “Qadar,” in which land, air, and naval forces coordinated seamlessly. With Mauritanian troops withdrawing, squadrons of F-5A fighter jets entered the airspace, C-130H aircraft dropped paratrooper units around Dakhla, and naval commandos carried out a direct landing at the port. Within just a few hours, the city was completely secured, and any attempt at separatism was crushed.
This operation immortalized the names of officers and soldiers who wrote the chapters of victory — among them Hassan Benmira, Bouchaib Faris Eddine, Lahcen Mazred, and Abdelkrim Mahfoud, along with the then-young officer Abdelfattah Louarak, serving in the 11th Airborne Infantry Regiment.
With this victory, allegiance to the throne was renewed, and the path to the development of Oued Eddahab began — reaffirming that when it comes to its territorial integrity, Morocco possesses the will and strength to make any separatist adventure vanish in mere moments.
