Moroccan Police Injured By Fire Bomb In W.Sahara

Three Moroccan police officers were wounded when their van was firebombed in the disputed territory of Western Sahara over the weekend.

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

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

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

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

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

A U.N. brokered ceasefire ended a guerrilla war between the two sides in 1991 and since then Rabat has poured money and people into the area.

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

Independence campaigners say regular demonstrations by Polisario supporters are put down brutally by the police and complain of widespread torture of activists, something the Moroccan authorities deny.