Word: wilayas
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Dates: during 1962-1962
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Within hours, motorized columns carrying 16,000 regular troops were rolling northward along three roads toward Algiers. Then they ran into roadblocks set up by defiant troops of Wilaya 4, the military district that includes Algiers and the surrounding region. As their trucks squealed to a halt, Ben Bella's troops embraced their foes at the barricades and sat down to drink coffee together. "Dear brother," one of Ben Bella's officers would say, "we have orders from the Politburo to advance on Algiers." A wilaya commander would reply: "Dear brother, we are sorry but we have orders...
...Four wilaya chiefs support the Politburo, headed by volatile Ahmed ben Bella ; so does the 45,000-man regular army commanded by lean, tuberculous Colonel Houari Boumedienne. In opposition are the 20.000 troops of Wilaya 4, which consists of Algiers and the surrounding countryside, and is commanded by a 28-year-old former medical student, Colonel Si Hassan, who has the same Marxist views as his archfoe, Boumedienne. The 10,000 seasoned guerrilla fighters of Wilaya j, covering the rugged mountains of Kaby-lia, also oppose Ben Bella and have promised to come to Si Hassan...
...time during last week's blood letting, no one seemed to know who the enemy was - or, for that matter, what the shooting was all about. Finally, a Wilaya 4 officer explained that some 500 well-armed men loyal to the Politburo had entered Algiers disguised as civilians and were scattered in small groups all over town. The young leaders of Wilaya 4 vaguely accused the Politburo of "betraying the martyrs of the revolution.'' For their part, the officers admit to murders and lootings but argue, in one officer's words: "Why should we respect...
...Djiech (The Army). At present, Boumedienne backs Ben Bella, but he wants to make the army the backbone of the Algerian nation. Boumedienne opposes close economic ties with France as a form of-"neo-colonialism," is against the presence of Europeans in an independent Algeria. Some anti-Ben Bella wilaya commanders, however, disagree with Boumedienne on these matters, vow that they will refuse to obey his orders...