The 1971 Moroccan coup d'état attempt, popularly known as the Skhirat coup d'état (, ), was a failed effort by rebel military leaders to overthrow King Hassan II of Morocco on 10 July 1971, during his forty-second birthday party. The first of two attempted coups during Hassan's rule, it was organized by a rebel faction of the Royal Armed Forces led by Lieutenant-Colonel M'hamed Ababou and General Mohamed Medbouh.
The faction attacked the king's summer palace at Skhirat, and the Radio-Maroc headquarters and offices of the Ministry of Interior in Rabat. Hassan, his immediate family, and his aides escaped and hid in a bathroom near the palace swimming pool, and the rebels were killed or captured by members of the Royal Guard.
The coup attempt led to Hassan reforming the Royal Armed Forces, including installing Mohamed Oufkir as Minister of Defense. Oufkir was subsequently involved in the second coup attempt against the king in 1972.
Background
Mohamed Medbouh
General Mohamed Medbouh was Inspector General of the Moroccan Royal Guard, and head of the Royal Military Cabinet. He had previously been implicated in an assassination attempt on the king in 1963. In April 1971, Medbouh visited the United States for medical treatment after suffering from a mild heart attack. During his visit, and under instructions from the king to investigate why the American airline Pan Am had abandoned plans to build an Intercontinental Hotel in Casablanca, Medbouh discovered that a Moroccan businessman, Omar Benmessaoud, had asked Pan Am for a bribe, which he called a "sizable commission" in exchange for government permission to build the hotel. Benmessaoud had claimed to have close links to the king and suggested that Pan Am should pay the monarch , in addition to his own "commission". Pan Am had informed the U.S. Secretary of State about the situation, leading to a noticeable deterioration in Morocco–U.S. relations. While Medbouh was interrogating Benmessaoud, he learnt of at least five other corruption cases implicating him; including a phosphate trafficking ring in Nador.
The report of his findings led King Hassan to dismiss four ministers. Medbouh considered this response insufficient, believing that the ministers should also face criminal charges. Inspired by Gamal Abdel Nasser and the 1952 Egyptian coup, Medbouh began to make plans for a forcible take-over of the government, and recruited senior officers from the Royal Armed Forces to capture the king and establish a "revolutionary council" to rid the country of corruption.
M'hamed Ababou
Lieutenant-Colonel M'hamed Ababou, the head of the Ahermoumou military school, had been planning to overthrow the king since 1968. Identifying as a Nasserist, Ababou had previously expressed frustration over government corruption and abuse. He planned for the coup to take place on 14 May, the same day as a military parade. His brother, Mohamed Ababou, was also involved in the plot, but the extent of his involvement remains unclear. Both Ababou and Medbouh were Riffians from the Gzenaya tribe. They convinced five of the Royal Armed Forces' fourteen generals, mainly apolitical reactionaries, to take part in the plot, promising that they would become part of the "revolutionary council" once the coup had succeeded.
Attack
Attack in Skhirat
On 10 July 1971, at 14:08 (GMT), during celebrations for King Hassan’s forty-second birthday at his palace in Skhirat, a coastal city 20 km south of Rabat; up to 1,400 cadets from the Ahermoumou military training academy led by Lieutenant-Colonel M'hamed Ababou, stormed the palace and attacked the guests with automatic weapons and grenades. Between 400 and 800 guests were present at the palace during the attack.