Word: oufkirs
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...last winter Morocco's King Hassan II and his trusted lieutenant, General Mohammed Oufkir, were in the seaside resort of Agadir, discussing an official visit by Libya's Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to nearby Mauritania. To the King's astonishment, Oufkir suddenly proposed that the Moroccan air force be used to assassinate Gaddafi, who had never made any secret of his antipathy toward Hassan. "If only we could find out Gaddafi's flight plan," asked Oufkir, "what would you think of sending an F-5 to smash into him in the middle of the desert...
...Oufkir, are you mad?" replied Hassan. "Even supposing we knew his flight plan, his altitude, his route and we hit him, you must realize that there would be an inquiry. They would find traces of bullets and rockets. In this area only Morocco has F-5s. Can you imagine the international scandal? Piracy in midair against a chief of state?" Then, to put the matter firmly out of hand, the King added: "Oufkir, I absolutely forbid this business...
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...