Word: oufkir
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...force pilots obligingly escorted the plane down to the airfield, where it landed safely with two of its three engines out of action. Calmly, the King reviewed the honor guard, chatted with Cabinet ministers and waiting foreign diplomats. Also waiting was Hassan's Defense Minister, General Mohammed Oufkir, 52. Ruthless, his eyes always hidden by dark glasses, Oufkir for more than a decade had been considered the strongest prop of the Moroccan monarchy. He gained international notoriety in 1965 for his role in the Paris kidnaping and presumed murder of the Moroccan Leftist Mehdi Ben Barka; a French court...
This day, shortly before the crippled plane landed, Oufkir had been summoned to the telephone at the airport control tower. What was said over the phone was not revealed. But shortly after the King, with three of his four children, had sped away to his summer palace in a small black Renault-16, a Moroccan air force jet made four passes at the field, shooting up cars, scattering the honor guard, killing eight people and wounding 47. But once again, Hassan had escaped totally unscathed...
...morning after the abortive coup, when calm had apparently returned to the capital, Morocco was shaken with the official announcement that eight hours after the attack on the royal plane, Oufkir had shot himself in the head at the King's palace at Skhi-rat. When word first broke, speculation was that he might have done so out of a sense of disgrace at having failed to prevent the revolt. Not so, charged Interior Minister Mohammed Benhima, revealing that one of the Gibraltar fugitives had implicated Oufkir. "It was a suicide of treachery," he said, "not a suicide...
Later, Moroccan sources said that Oufkir's plan had been to kill not only the King but his heirs as well. The King's plane was to have been shot down over water, thus appearing to be an accident. What about the phone call at the airport control tower? Presumably at that point Oufkir had realized that his plot had failed and he ordered the jets to strafe the King on the ground...
...army cadets in an abortive coup while Hassan and 500 guests celebrated the King's 42nd birthday at a seaside party (see box). The coup was put down in a matter of hours, and life quickly returned to normal in Morocco under the strong hand of General Mohammed Oufkir, 51, a tough, uncompromising Berber who is Hassan's Interior Minister and most loyal general. By week's end, Oufkir's men had reportedly arrested some 900 cadets...