The
Battle of Algiers was a campaign of urban
guerrilla warfare carried out by the
National Liberation Front (FLN) against the
French Algerian authorities from late 1956 to late 1957. The conflict began as a series of terrorist attacks by the FLN against the French forces and civilians in
Algiers, reprisals followed and the violence escalated leading the French Governor-General to deploy the
French Army in Algiers to suppress the FLN. Civilian authorities left all prerogatives to General
Jacques Massu who, operating outside legal frameworks between January and September 1957, successfully eliminated the FLN from Algiers. The use of
torture,
forced disappearances and illegal executions by the French later caused controversy in France.