In a mood almost of desperation, Zighout and Ben Tobbal convened a council of war at the end of June to launch, for the first time, a policy of total war on all French civilians, regardless of age and sex. Justifying it, Zighout declared: "To colonialism's policy of collective repression [author's italics] we must reply with collective reprisals against the Europeans, military and civil, who are all united behind the crimes committed upon our people. For them, no pity, no quarter!" Simultaneously with military action by cadres of the F.L.N., a true "people's revolt" was to be unleashed in the Constantine region, in which "the largest possible number of Algerians, even hastily armed with only sticks, pitchforks, axes, sickles and knives", was to be involved.

XREF: Connects to histories of asymmetric warfare and justifications for civilian targeting in colonial and anti-colonial conflicts.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 373