GREEK REBELLION NEARING THE END

Grey River Argus, 24 August 1948, Page 5

GREEK REBELLION NEARING THE END

Over- Third of Forces Lost in Grammos LONDON, Aug 23. The Greek General Staff has announced that the campaign against General Markos’s rebels has ended. No more military objectives remain to be taken, said the announcement, and operations were reduced to mopping up. • General Stelios Kitrilakis, deputy chief of staff, announced that the Grammos victory was such a blow to the guerrillas that suppression of the rebellion could be anticipated by the end of J 94.8. The American Press correspondent at Kozane quotes General Kitrilakis as saying that part of the Greek Army will hold Grammos while other sections attack the remaining guerrilla strongholds General Kitrilakis estimated that 4000 of the 11,000 guerrillas in the Grammos area were killed or captured. It is believed that 1000 of the guerrillas are stilL hiding in the area and that 1000 others have escaped to Albania. A Greek Army comnU-inique said that troops in the northern sector attacked guerrillas defending Aliakmon bridge, and in West Macedonia were fighting 1500 guerrillas at Kaminades, 10 miles north of Nestorian. The Prime Minister of Greece (M. Constantin Tsaldaris) announced that Greece would lodge a _ strong protest with the United- Nations, alleging that Albania allowed guerrilla forces to regroup in Albania after their defeat in the Grammos mountains. Guerrillas’ Retreat Reported Cut Off (Rec. 9.30). LONDON, Aug. 23. Reuter’s Salonika correspondent says:—Greek Government forces last night were reported as having occupied the frontier line along the Greek Albanian border, thus cutting_ the guerrillas escape route to Albania. Many Thousand Greek Children Kidnapped by the Communists STATEMENT BY SISTER OF DUKE OF EDINBURGH (Rec. 9.0). LONDON, August 23. The Greek terrorists’ bands kidnapped thousands of children of all ages, and forced them to fight, or else took them to other countries, to be trained as “Good Communists”, said Princess Theodora, of Greece, who has arrived in London from Athens. The Princess is the Duke of Edinburgh’s sister. ' She is going to Gordonstown, in Scotland, where her son is at school. She said that the Greek Government had, thus far, rescued twentyfour thousand children.