Draft:Battle of Djebel Kessal

The battle was led by two battalions of the National Liberation Army (ALN), led by the two martyrs Didani Ahmed, called Lazreg, and Guettaf M'hamed, on April 18, 1958, on the heights of Mount Kessal, not far of the communes of Stitten and El Bayadh, which is characterized by the density of its vegetation and its rugged paths, which made it a fortified place that the mujahideen used as a base to launch numerous operations against the French colonial army in the region.

Initial attack
The battle took place following the attack that was carried out, on the evening of April 17, 1958, by the battalion of Guettaf M'hamed against the colonial army in the village of Stitten, which the colonial soldiers had evacuated of its inhabitants in July 1957, declaring it a prohibited area and placing them in a camp in the "Mekther" zone.

According to the Directorate of Mujahideen and Rights Holders, the attack left 75 French soldiers dead and several injured, while others fled.

After this attack which saw the destruction of enemy military vehicles, the battalion returned to Mount Kessal at nightfall, without reporting any losses among the mujahideen.

The bullet marks from this attack are still present in the town of Stitten and bear witness to this historic event.

The Battle
In retaliation for this successful mujahideen operation, the French colonizer mobilized a large number of soldiers and military equipment, and besieged Jebel Kessal at night.

Around 6 a.m., the colonial army began bombarding National Liberation Army mujahideen positions with cannons and fighter planes.

The ground forces of the colonial army began to move, but the mujahideen, in execution of the orders of his command, let them climb the mountain and responded only after the French soldiers found themselves at a stone's throw, causing them to suffer heavy loss of life, which is noted to the leadership of the Mujahideen and Rights Holders.

The planes resumed bombing, targeting the mujahideen positions and the battle continued like this all day.

This battle, which lasted more than 13 hours and was covered, at the time, by several international media, 11 mujahideen and heroes of the National Liberation Army fell on the field of honor, nine of whom died in martyrs during the battle and two of them later succumbed to their serious wounds, added the same source.

The battle also saw the death of around 500 French soldiers and many wounded, in addition to causing damage to several aircraft, which did not crash, but rather shot down by the FLN soldiers, and the destruction of military vehicles.

Indiscriminate bombing by the French Air Force also contributed to increasing the number of deaths among French soldiers in this battle, according to the same source.

Aftermath
The French colonizer had brutal and barbaric reactions, because on April 19, following this battle, a vast search operation was carried out in the region and its surroundings, but without succeeding in finding the mujahideen. It was then that French soldiers took revenge on the population and nomads, carrying out raids on villages and carrying out arbitrary arrests of defenseless citizens.

For his part, Professor Abdelkader Boutadjine, researcher in the history of the region, stressed that the battle of Mount Kessal is considered one of the fiercest battles in the west of the country, during which the mujahideen won a great victory, despite the lack of weapons in relation to the large number of enemy soldiers and their heavy equipment, but the skillful planning of the leaders of this battle made it possible to inflict heavy losses on the colonizer.

At the end of the battle, the French colonizer sent his war planes to monitor the mujahideen and napalm-bombed the mountains of the "Tassina" region (south of the wilaya of El Bayadh), an incendiary bomb banned throughout the world.