Small groups of killers, the scent of blood in their nostrils, now fanned out by taxi, bicycle or even on horseback into the surrounding countryside, spreading the word that a general jihad, or “holy war”, had broken out. At Chevreul European small farmers found themselves — like the Kenyan settlers under Mau-Mau — attacked by faithful servants whom they had employed for thirty years, and survivors huddled for protection in the local gendarmerie. At Périgotville Muslims seized an arms magazine, slaughtered a dozen Europeans, including the administrator and his assistant, then pillaged and burned the town. At the charming small seaport of Djidjelli four forest guards were among the murdered; at Kerrata a justice of the peace and his wife. In many cases it was the petits fonction-naires, symbols of the présence française, that the assassins seemed particularly bent on hunting down.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 72