Moroccan police car firebombed

2007-07-02 13:00

Rabat - Three Moroccan police officers were wounded after their van was firebombed in the disputed territory of Western Sahara during the weekend, said a local government official on Monday.

A group of people wearing hoods hurled three firebombs at the officers' van while it was parked in the territory's main city of Laayoune late on Saturday evening, said the official.

He said that the attackers then fled, leaving one of the police officers with second-degree burns and the two others with first-degree burns.

According to the official: "Enquiries are continuing. We have not yet been able to track down the perpetrators."

Such incidents were rare in the desert territory of 260 000 people, where Morocco's presence was opposed by independence movement,Polisario.

A United Nations brokered ceasefire ended a guerrilla war between the two sides in 1991 and since then Rabat had poured money and people into the area.

Moroccans were now thought to outnumber the indigenous Sahrawis, most of whom lived in separate neighbourhoods under heavy police surveillance.

Independence campaigners said regular demonstrations by Polisario supporters were put down brutally by the police and complained of widespread torture of activists, something the Moroccan authorities denied.

- Reuters