FIENDISH CRUELTY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 700, 27 June 1929, Page 9

FIENDISH CRUELTY

MOORS CUT THE THROATS* OF PRISONERS LEFT TO DIE IN DESERT (Australian and N.Z. Press Association> Reed. 9.35 a.m. PARIS, Wednesday. A message from Rabat, French Morocco, says tne bodies of the six missing officers, 11 French soldiers and 70 native troops concerned in the ambush at on June 12 have been found. It appears that the Moors were fiendishly cruel. They cut the throats of the wounded and unwounded French prisoners, and left them to die in the broiling sun. The dead were not buried. A serious reverse was inflicted on the French troops on June 10. The rebel tribesmen ambushed two companies of French-Moroccan infantry and the supporting cavalry detachment. Thirteen of the French were killed and 17 French and 70 natives missing*. The attackers swept out of a defile and completely surprised the French officers, who were killed as they attempted to rally their native troops against the whirlwind attacks of the tribesmen. In a final charge the attackers rode at full speed wildly through the French ranks, firing rifles and weliding heavy swords with terrible effect. The prisoners taken by. the rebels were hurried to the latter’s stronghold. Their ultimate fate is doubtful as the tribesmen are notorious for their malicious treatment of captives, especially Christians.