arms. Furthermore, Colonel Jan Luis Beigbeder gained the support of the Grand Vizier of Tetuán, Mulay Hassan, and Moroccan volunteers started to join the rebellion. 18 July In Larache the coup started at two o'clock in the morning of 18 July. Several engagements followed in which five assault guards and two rebel officers were killed, but by dawn the town was in the hands of the rebels. By mid-morning the only remaining centres of resistance were the High Commissioner's residence and the air force base at Tetuán. The rebels threatened to bomb both and after a few hours the defenders surrendered to the Nationalists; all of them were executed, among them the high commissioner and the Major de la Puente Bahamonde – Francisco Franco's cousin. The same day, the workers of Tetúan and Melilla attempted a general strike, but were crushed by the insurgent troops. Nationalist repression On his secret instructions of 30 June for the coup in Morocco, Mola ordered: "to eliminate left-wing elements, communists, anarchists, union members, etc". The same day as the rising all the members of trade unions, left-wing parties, Masonic lodges and anyone known to have voted for the Popular Front were arrested. On the first night, the Nationalists executed 189 civilians and soldiers. On 20 July, the Nationalists opened their first Francoist concentration camp in Melilla. Aftermath By 18 July, the Spanish Army of Africa had seized all of Spanish Morocco and crushed the resistance. The same day, Francisco Franco started the rising in the Canary Islands. Then he took a De Havilland Dragon Rapide aircraft, paid for by Luis Bolín, and flew to Casablanca in French Morocco. On 19 July, Franco continued on to Tetuan and appointed himself chief of the Spanish Army in Morocco. Most of the Republican Navy remained loyal to the government. The loyal ships patrolled the Strait of Gibraltar and Spanish Morocco was isolated from the rebel-held cities in Andalusia; Seville, Cadiz, Cordoba and Granada). Nevertheless, with the aid of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, the Nationalists managed to transport the Army of Africa's troops to the mainland and start their advance towards Madrid. See also List of Spanish Nationalist military equipment of the Spanish Civil War List of Spanish Republican military equipment of the Spanish Civil War Footnotes Bibliography 1936 in Morocco 1936 in Spain Conflicts in 1936 History of Melilla July 1936 events 20th-century rebellions Battles of