1991 Tifariti offensive Operation Rattle also known as the 1991 Tifariti offensive , was the last military operation in the Western Sahara War by the Royal Moroccan Army against the Sahrawi guerrilla fighters of the Polisario Front , seeking independence for Western Sahara . A ceasefire ( accorded to be in effect from 6 September 1991 ) had been agreed between the parts on July . During August and the first days of September 1991 , the Royal Moroccan Army ( RMA ) conducted offensive operations in the areas of Mehaires , Tifariti , Bir Lahlou , Mijek and Agwanit , resulting in multiple Sahrawi civilian casualties , the destruction of Tifariti and Bir Lahlou , poisoning of the wells and subsequently depopulation of the area . Operation Rattle . Between August 4 – 5 , Moroccan troops and aviation attacked the towns of Tifariti , Mehaires and Mijek , destroying infrastructure that had been built for the nomad population of the area and the outcome of the referendum , and while a United Nations military experts mission was in the zone . POLISARIO sources stated that they had no military casualties , and on August 13 declared that one Sahrawi had been killed and another wounded during the attacks on Tifariti and Miyek . Sahrawi sources from Tindouf mentioned that three civilians were wounded during the attacks . On August 4 , a Moroccan Mirage F - 1 was shot down by Sahrawi fighters near Tifariti , and his pilot Captain Youssef Megzari captured . While the POLISARIO saw the attacks as a Moroccan attempt to sabotage the peace plan , the Moroccan official news agency defined the attacks as a " cleansing operation in no - man ' s land " to avoid the " infiltration of elements armed and trained to made terrorist attacks on the Moroccan Sahara " From August 22 , a second wave of attacks by the Moroccan forces take part on Tifariti , Bir Lehlou , Mijek and Agwanit . While Polisario Front sources defined the attacks as a " massive terrestrial offensive " and denounced the " systematic destruction of the water wells " , MAP stated that since early August there had been " polical operations of cleaning and searching in the no man ' s land " , but denying that there were on a " greater scale " . On August 25 , POLISARIO officials announced that Moroccan forces had reached the town of Bir Lehlou , the temporary capital of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic , making hundreds of Sahrawi civilians flee into the desert . These sources stated that the Sahrawi forces were not opposing resistance to the Moroccan offensive , due to " respect to the date of September 6 marked by the UN peace plan for the ceasefire " , but also adverted that if after the ceasefire date the attacks continued , " Sahrawis will be legitimated to exercise their self - defense right " . Finally , they affirmed that at least twenty Sahrawi nomad civilians had died , most of them of thirst , during the Moroccan offensive . On August 27 , then UN Secretary General Javier Pérez de Cuellar expressed his confidence on the maintenance of the ceasefire date , while dismissing POLISARIO reports about the attacks . Moroccan press attacked Pérez de Cuellar , accusing him of not being neutral and creating confusion . Meanwhile , the Royal Moroccan Air Force bombed Tifariti again , killing at least five civilians , wounding 20 and destroying the infrastructure of the town , according to Hash Ahmed , then POLISARIO representative in Madrid , who added that ten thousand refugees on the Tifariti region were fleeing , and a hundred were disappeared . On August 29 Bachir Mustapha Sayed , POLISARIO representative for relations with the MINURSO , declared that the Moroccan troops were retreating into the Moroccan Wall . Cease fire . A cease - fire between the Polisario Front and Morocco , monitored by MINURSO ( UN ) has been in effect since 6 September 1991 , with the promise of the celebration of a referendum on independence the following year .