Morocco, 1971 — military coup attempt
Event Summary
On 10 July 1971, during a lavish party at the Skhirat palace celebrating King Hassan II of Morocco's forty second birthday, some 1,400 military cadets from the Ahermoumou academy, led by Lieutenant Colonel M'hamed Ababou and organized by General Mohamed Medbouh, stormed the palace and opened fire on the guests in a bloody coup attempt aimed at establishing a republic. Around 100 people were killed, including generals, ministers, and the Belgian ambassador, while the cadets, many told they were rescuing the king from traitors, fired into the crowd. Hassan and his family hid in a small pavilion and escaped detection.
Medbouh was shot dead in a dispute among the plotters, and when the rebels moved on Rabat, Ababou was killed in a firefight with loyalist troops. The king emerged unharmed, and the cadets, realizing they had attacked the monarch they meant to save, declared their loyalty. Loyal forces under Oufkir crushed the rising, and ten senior officers were executed on 13 July.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Datasets agree. At least two of the three reference datasets we check against carry this event, and none of them disagrees about its date or its result.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
60007101971- Albrecht/Koehler/Schutz (CAM) id
CAM-600-1971-07-10
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: King Hassan II survived the Skhirat palace attack unharmed and purged the army; the coup leaders were killed or executed.
Baseline coding: Coup attempt failed to remove the incumbent. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; placed under house arrest. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
CSP
Luttwak
Powell and Thyne
Wikipedia
New York Times
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →