THE WAR.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 12, 27 December 1911, Page 6

THE WAR.

(By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.)

tUnited Press Association.J

Rome, December 25

A force of 3500 'lurks and Arabs attacked Colonel Fame and bis toice at Birtobras, nav Azizia. Colonel Fara formed a square. His zareba was exposed for twenty hours to a hot fire. The Italian troops displayed admirable discipline and coolness, repelling five desperate assaults. A thousand Turks and Arabs attacked the troops guarding the earthworks for a new battery overlooking Tobruk roadstead. After a fight for six hours, in which the warships in the roadstead participated, the assailants were repulsed, losing heavily. The Italians had seven killed and sixteen wounded.

Paris, December 24

Advices received from Aziz : a statt that the Italians were repulsed with the loss of two hundred men. The Turks had twelve killed and thirty wounded. The Turkish version of the engagement near Ainzara states that the Italians lost their way and a detachment was cut off and pursued to Ainzara. There the Italians lost five hundred men and the Turks twenty.

Rome, December 24. The Italians captured the Turkish hospital ship Kaiserisch, and allege that there were no beds, surgical appliances, or medical stores aboard her. The Kaiserisch was seized on suspicion of being a Turkish transport bound for Arabia.

(Received 27, 9.40 a.in.)

Malta, December 26. Advices from Tripoli stats that sixteen thousand Arabs with cannon and quick-firers participated in a second attack on Afnzara. The Italians were surprised and thrown into disorder, and bad to be repeatedly reinforced. The Italians are converting Ainzara into an impregnable fortress, and mounting long-range guns.