Mohamed Lamari

Mohamed Lamari
Mohamed Lamari
Birth name	Mohammed Lamari
Born	7 June 1939; Lieutenant General
Unit	11th Cavalry Scouts Regiment
Commands held	Chief of Staff of the People's National Army

Lt. Gen. Mohamed Lamari (7 June 1939 – 13 February 2012) (

Arabic: محمد العماري) was Chief of Staff of the Algerian army during most of the Algerian Civil War.^[1]

Personal life

He was born on 7 June 1939 in Biskra, to a family originally from Bordj Benazzouz (near Biskra).^[2]

Early military career

He joined the

M. V. Frunze Military Academy, then as a general staff officer at the Ecole de Guerre in Paris. From 1970 to 1976 he commanded a regional general staff, then he worked in the general staff operational bureau until 1988, when he became commander of the 5th military region (eastern Algeria around Constantine

). In 1989, he became commander of ground forces.

Lamari's sons include Farid (a military dentist)[3] and Mourad, an adviser at the Algerian embassy to Belgium.^{[citation needed]}

Civil war

In the military coup of 1992 that started the

Liamine Zeroual

became Minister of Defense, Mohamed Lamari became Chief of Staff, a post in which he would remain for more than a decade of war.

Politically, he was considered an

eradicationist, rejecting the idea of negotiation with the government's Islamist opponents. In his capacity as head of the CCLAS, he was accused by Mohamed Samraoui of ultimately controlling the Organisation of Young Free Algerians

, a pro-government armed group claiming credit for various attacks on civilians.