Morocco’s Hilale vows Smara attacks won’t go unpunished

NEW YORK - Morocco’s permanent representative to the United Nations in New York said Monday that the Algeria-backed Polisario Front was most likely responsible for the four explosions in the southern city of Smara.

The blasts, which occurred last Saturday, killed one man and injured three others and damaged two houses, authorities said in a statement.

Showing maps of the city to the press following the Security Council’s vote to extend the mandate of Minurso, Omar Hilale said that the four explosions took place in industrial and residential areas where there are no military installations.

“One death, that of the young martyr Hamza who came from France to ask for the hand of his cousin,” he said.

Hilale said that Minurso was quickly in the scene and was able to make its own findings, which will allow it to make a report to its headquarters and to the UN.

“We are currently in the process of collecting data, particularly scientific and ballistic ones, and we are not naming anyone responsible for the attack. But there is a bundle of clues,” he said, adding that these clues were numerous and pointed particularly in the same direction.

The official press agency of the Polisario separatists issued Sunday a press release claiming to have carried out attacks against the “entrenchments” of the Royal Armed Forces (FAR) in the regions of Mahbès, Es-Smara and Farsia, “causing significant losses” in human and material terms.

“International law, international humanitarian law, Security Council resolutions classify any attack on targeting civilians in cities as a terrorist act as an act of war and of course, this entails consequences and responsibilities,” said the Moroccan diplomat.

Hilale vowed that the attacks will not go unpunished.

“Those responsible will have to assume their legal and political responsibility, not only those who carried out these attacks but also those who are behind them, those who shelter them, those who provide them with missiles, Katyushas or mortars,”   he warned.

“Morocco will take the necessary decisions when the investigation is over,” he added.

Hilale said the Security Council must be the first to draw conclusions and consequences in light of the Minurso report.

“We hope that this report will be made public by the UN so that everyone knows who is targeting civilians and who is killing innocent people, which destabilises security in the region and risks causing tragedies,” he concluded.