Editing Algiers (section)

===Algerian War===
[[File:1962-03-22 Algeria tense cease fire.ogv|thumb|right|The "tense truce" between Algerian rebels, French army and the OAS in 1962]]
Algiers also played a pivotal role in the [[Algerian War]] (1954–1962), a bloody independence struggle in which hundreds of thousands (estimates range between 350,000 and 1,500,000) died (mostly Algerians but also French and [[pieds-noirs]]). In particular, it saw the [[Algerian War#Battle of Algiers|Battle of Algiers]] when the 10th Parachute Division of the French Army, starting on January 7, 1957, and on the orders of the French Minister of Justice [[François Mitterrand]] (who authorized any means "to eliminate the insurrectionists"{{Citation needed|date=June 2008}}), led attacks against the Algerian fighters for independence. Algiers remains marked by this battle, which was characterized by merciless fighting between FLN forces which carried out a guerrilla campaign against the French military and police and pro-French Algerian soldiers, and the French Army which responded with a bloody repression, torture and blanket terrorism against the native population. The demonstrations of May 13 during the crisis of 1958 provoked the fall of the [[French Fourth Republic|Fourth Republic]] in France, as well as the return of General [[Charles de Gaulle|de Gaulle]] to power.