Armor at the Oasis

After months of increasing tension and in spite of anguished pleas from five Arab chiefs of state, Algeria and Morocco last week were on the brink of war for control of the former Spanish Sahara. By week's end a sharp and bloody battalion-level battle near the oasis of Amgala (see map) had apparently ended in Morocco's favor. Reports from the scene were sketchy, but the Algerian press service spoke of "violent combat," while Moroccan officials, claiming victory, conceded "many dead."

Wrestling for the barren but phosphate-rich former Spanish colony (103,000 sq. mi., pop. 73,000) began in the wake of last November's "Green March"--350,000 unarmed, Koran-carrying Moroccans dispatched by King Hassan II to lay claim to the territory. Though the marchers halted short of Spanish battle lines, Hassan secured from Madrid an agreement partitioning the colony between Morocco and Mauritania. Algeria quickly denounced the deal and warned darkly of "protracted guerrilla war."

In December, as Moroccan and Mauritanian occupying forces moved in, guerrillas from an acronymic Algerian-trained liberation group known as the Frente Polisario staged a series of violent clashes and ambushes against both armies. Polisario spokesmen claim to have inflicted particularly heavy losses on Mauritania's tiny (3,800 men) army--219 killed and 37 P.O.W.s. Two weeks ago, Polisario guerrillas downed a Moroccan F-5 fighter flying close cover during a clash between the guerrillas and Mauritanian forces. Meanwhile, Algerian diplomats denounced Moroccan "aggression" in world forums. Some 35,000 Moroccans living in Algeria were deported, and the bulk of Algeria's 55,000-man army was drawn up near Tindouf, at the intersection of Morocco, Algeria and Mauritania.

The Moroccan army launched a search-and-destroy campaign against the Polisarios. Apparently in response, Algerian units crossed into the Sahara. At Amgala, a skirmish between Moroccans and the guerrillas grew into a major battle with tanks and heavy artillery. Morocco claimed to have captured 101 Algerian prisoners. Algeria admitted only that its forces had "withdrawn in good order . . . after they had admirably carried out their mission."

Stung Again. The possibility of all-out war stirred fears throughout the Arab world. Egypt's Anwar Sadat, Tunisia's Habib Bourguiba and Iraq's Ahmed Hassan Bakr telephoned Hassan and Algerian President Houari Boumedienne to urge a ceasefire. Syria's Hafez Assad dispatched Vice Premier Mohammed Haidar and Chief of Staff General Hikmat Chehabi to Algiers and Rabat to try to defuse what Damascus radio called "the explosive situation."

At week's end Moroccan communiques claimed the area had been "cleansed of all rebel elements." Algerian pride, still wounded by a Moroccan whipping in the 1963 border war, had been stung again. Should Boumedienne try to even the score, Algeria's army would be far from supply bases and pitted against a Moroccan force roughly its equal in size and skill. But Algeria's 3-to-1 advantage in air power could prove decisive in the Sahara's frigid, windswept wadies and salt flats, whose sparse vegetation creates ideal strafing ground.

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