The Moroccan Army of Liberation ambushes a Spanish patrol in the Battle of Edchera.
The Ifni War, sometimes called the Forgotten War in Spain (la Guerra Olvidada), was a series of armed incursions into Spanish West Africa by Moroccan insurgents that began in October 1957 and culminated with the abortive siege of Sidi Ifni.
The war, which may be seen as part of the general movement of decolonization that swept Africa throughout the latter half of the 20th century, was conducted primarily by elements of the Moroccan Army of Liberation which, no longer tied down in conflicts with the French, committed a significant portion of its resources and manpower to gain independence from Spain.
The Army of Liberation (Moroccan Arabic: جيش التحرير, romanized: Jish Etteḥrir; Berber languages: Aserdas Uslelli) was an organization of various loosely united militias fighting for the independence of Morocco from the French-Spanish coalition.
It was founded sometime in 1955 as an attempt to organise the various factions of rural Moroccan armed resistance that swept the country as a result of the assassination of Farhat Hached and the exile of king Mohamed bin Yusef. Abdelkrim El Khattabi played an important role in the instigation of the army, through commanders such as Abbas Messaadi and Sellam Amezian.