Algerian Death Toll Rises Steadily

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29728, 23 January 1962, Page 3

Algerian Death Toll Rises Steadily

(N.Z.P.A .-Reuter—Copyrig ht)

Five persons wen in Bone yesterday exploded at a butcher and Moslems were shopping, police said.

In Oran, Western Algeria, a 75-year-old European was killed outside his house in a mixed European-Moslem quarter, and two Europeans were injured in an attack in the suburbs. In Marseilles, four persons were injured, two seriously, by a plastic bomb explosion at lunchtime. Other explosions in Bordeaux and Toulouse during the night caused serious damage but no casualties. Sixteen persons were killed and 35 injured in Algeria yesterday, bringing the casualty total to 387 dead and 697 wounded since January 1, reported the British United Press.

On Saturday, terrorists in a car attacked a cafe in Algiers with machine-gun fire, killing five Moslems and wounding six, said the British United Press. The attack and other shootings and knifings elsewhere in Algeria raised the day’s toll to 21 dead and 14 wounded. Withdrawal of Troops New French Government measures to try to halt the wave of terrorism and the threat of large-scale racial violence in Algeria were expected to be applied shortly, said Reuter. But some Europeans said they did not see

ALGIERS, January 22

e killed and 25 injured when a booby-trap ■ shop where Europeans doing their Sunday

how energetic measures could be taken in view of the announcement that two divisions were to be withdrawn from Algeria before the end of this month. In Paris, informed sources quoted by United Press International said President de Gaulle’s decision to proceed with plans to withdraw the two army divisions from Algeria was the first step in challenging the Secret Army Organisation to a showdown.

Late on Saturday night, General de Gaulle overruled his military advisers and said the troops would be brought to France, after it had been reported earlier they would remain in Algeria. The reversal threatened a Parliamentary storm. Officials said General de Gaulle believed these two main factors had held back the O.A.S. from staging a new armed revolt: Lingering hope that General de Gaulle could be prevented by continued terrorism from giving up Algeria to the Moslems. Fear that . the French Army in Algeria would back General de Gaulle and enable him to crush an uprising. Three French Army officers accused of torturing an Algerian woman by connecting electrical terminals to her breasts and other parts of her body have been acquitted of unintentionally causing her death. But sources close to the Minister of the Armed Forces (Mr Pierre Messmer) said he might appeal against the decision. Three doctors reported she had died either of fright or heart failure.