Muhammad ibn Abd al-Karim al-Khattabi, otherwise known as Abd el-Krim, was President of the Rif Republic, a Moroccan freedom fighter, and a guerrilla warfare specialist. He led his people through the Third Rif War and won a resounding victory against the Spanish at the battle of Annual in 1921. He would go on and influence many a revolutionary, from Ho Chi Minh to Mao to Che and in the process he helped to chip away at the tottering colonial system in Africa.
Muhammad ibn Abd al-Karim al-Khattabi, otherwise known as Abd el-Krim, was President of the Rif Republic, a Moroccan freedom fighter, and a guerrilla warfare specialist. He led his people through the Third Rif War and won a resounding victory against the Spanish at the battle of Annual in 1921. He would go on and influence many a revolutionary, from Ho Chi Minh to Mao to Che and in the process he helped to chip away at the tottering colonial system in Africa.
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Spain had lost much of its prestige and most of its power in the disastrous war with the United States in the late 1800’s. The ancient Iberian empire was running on fumes but change is hard to accept, especially for those that wear crowns. In an effort to keep up appearances the Spanish claimed some coastal Moroccan lands and declared them the imaginatively titled, Spanish Protectorate of Morocco. The Spanish didn’t have the strength to maintain colonies all over the globe like they once did so a few valuable trade ports a mere 15 miles across the Straits of Gibraltar seemed like a pretty straight forward, safe bet. What they didn’t reckon on though was a man named El-Krim.
Born in the 1880’s, the exact date is unknown, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Krim al-Khattabi was a fearsome, brilliant, guerrilla fighter and leader for the Riffian cause against colonial powers. Highly educated, el-Krim first worked as reporter and local government administrator and at this time in his life, 1910-1915, he had warm patriotic feelings for Spain. But as German sympathizer throughout the First World War, el-Krim was targeted by the French Moroccan government which had close ties to the Spanish. improsned for a time, el-Krim escaped and began a decades long fight for the freedom of his people and culture, in the Rif.
Joined by his brother M’hammad, el-Krim began his fight in earnest in 1921. It was also the eyarof his greatest victory at teh battle of Annual. Spanish General Manuel Fernandez Silvestre dismissed El-Krim’s warning that if he and his army crossed into Rif territory they would be considered hostile and attacked. The Spanish army of 20 to 30k, depending on sources, met the Riffian forces of between 3 and 5k and was annihilated. Silvestre committed suicide on the field and some 10 to 13k Spanish soldiers and civilains were cut down in the fighting. Many of them died while surrendering, which will be important.
The massive success at Annual led to two things; a general expansion of the rebellion from the eastern part of the Rifacross Morocco to the western part and absolute panic in Madrid. The Spanish government floundered as what was thought to be a simple smacking around of a few tribal toughs was quickly turning into a colonial quagmire and an international embarrassment. The new government recognized the danger of its current position with dozens of outpost strewn about the heartland of Morocco and thousands of Spanish soldiers manning them now isolated in enemy territory. The order was given for a withdrawl to the persidios along the coast, where supply lines could be maintained and naval guns could be brought to bare on any Berber rebels about. The slapdash retreat from the interior post was a costly one as el-Krims guerrillas implemented his attacks and tactics perfectly, costing the Spanish more than 15k in casualties.
By 1924 the Spanish stood humiliated and tottering, their grip on events clearly inadequate. The French, colonial neighbors, didn’t want the fire of rebellion spreading and offered to lend a hand. The combined forces, under the Hero of Verdun Henri Petain himself, numbered 250k and hundereds of planes and an armada of naval forces, set out to crush el-Krim and his “bandits”. In 1925 the newly allied forces executed an amphibous landing a scant dozen miles from el-Krim’s home base and capitol of the Rif. The overwhelming nature of the offensive meant the outcome was never in doubt but another ten months went by, both sides ruthless and beastly in its violence towards the other, before the end of the rebellion came.
As part of the peace treaty, el-Krim was banished to exile on the remote French island of Reunion, where he lived a comfortable life for 20 years. Suffering health issues, el-Krim was transferred to the south of France where he eventually slipped away to Egypt where he was given asylum in 1947. He spent the next 15 years fighting for the total removal of colonial powers from North African lands. He died in 1963.
When we cover Annual and the Rif war more extensively on the battlecast, but I did want to briefly mention some of the atrocities committed by the PSanish and French and to a lesser degree the Riffians. Both sides mutilated and tortured and raped, as almost every army in every war has to one degree or another but when the surrendering at Annual were cut down the violence of the Rif War was ratcheted up a notch. The Spanish were appalled, The Spanish king reportedly called them “malicious beasts”and another official saying “completely irreducible and uncivilized… They despise all the advantages of civilization. They are hermetic to benevolence and fear only punishment”. This dehumanizing and otheringof the Rif people led to the use of humecticides, poison gases. The Spanish minister of War, Berenguer stated:
I have been obstinately resistant to the use of suffocating gases against these indigenous peoples but after what they have done, and of their treacherous and deceptive conduct, I have to use them with true joy.
Gases like phosgene, diphosgene, and the universally feared and hated mustard gas were deployed as force multipliers. The idea was that if the Rif rebels could use geography and terrain as their advantage then the Spanish should be able to use technology and science as thier advantage.