ONE OF THE MOST DECISIVE BATTLES IN EUROPEAN HISTORY

ONE OF THE MOST DECISIVE BATTLES IN EUROPEAN HISTORY

In 732, on a hilltop between Tours and Poitiers in France, on of the most decisive battle in European history was fought. In the hundred years following ,armies inspired by the Islamic faith had pressed forward through north Africa and the Iberian Peninsula to arrive in the heart of Western Europe. In 732, the governor-general of Muslim Spain, Abd-ar-Rahman al-Ghafiqi, led an army across the Pyrenees and conquered Aquitaine, laying waste to Bordeauxe. He than headed for the kingdom of the Franks, toward the city of Tours.
              The Frankish leader Charles Martel placed his 30,000-strong army on high, wooded ground, in their line of advance. He formed his men into a tight infantry square, and waited. Abd-ar-Rahman al-Ghafiqi held off from attacking from 7 days, although his force may have outnumbered the Franks by two to one. when he finally lunched his cavalry, the Frankish infantry stood firm and repelled their charges. After a long fight, the Muslim horsemen withdrew to defend their war  chests, and abandoned by his men, Abd-ar-Rahman al-Ghafiqi was surrounded and killed.
               It is likely that Abd-ar-Rahman al-Ghafiqi had not sought to coquer European Chsistendom, but just to lead a raidinng expedition. But if the Frankish warriors had lost, nothing would have stood in the way of a Muslim takewover of western Europe. Charls Martel consolidate the Carolingian Empire, which formed a barrier to the northward expansion of Islam.
               

A JOURNEY THROUGH IMPOSSIBLE MOUNTAIN BARRIER TO ATTACK ROME.

A JOURNEY THROUGH IMPOSSIBLE MOUNTAIN BARRIER TO ATTACK ROME.

In the fall of 218 B.C.E., an exhausted,demoralized army lay scattered among the rocks,snow, and ice of a high Alpine pass.A  force of wild tribesmen from Spain , Libyan foot soldiers, and Numidian horsemen from north Africa had followed twenty-eight-year-old general Hannibal Barca in a bid to cross this apparently impossible mountain barrier.
           Hannibal's native city, Carthage, in what is now Tunisia, was engaged in a life-or-death struggle with the Roman republic from control of the western Mediterranean. In the spring of 218 B.C.E., Hannibal had led his army from Spain to Italy. He set out with more than 100,000 men, tens of thousands of horses and mules, and thirty-seven war elephants. A long journey to hostile territory greatly reduced the army even before it reached the Alps. There, advancing up narrow tracks through mountain gorges, Hannibal's soldier were attacked by the Alloroges and other local tribesmen. It took 9 days to reach the top of the pass.
            Hannibal, Who had shared in all his men's hardships, rallied the cold and hungry troops to under tack the descent into Italy, which, he said, would place Rome ion their hands. Walking walking on snow and ice, the animals and men struggled along the narrow downward track, terrified of falling to their deaths over the slippery edge. At one point they had to spend four days rebuilding the obliterated path. Only around 26,000 men made it to Italy, with a handful of elephants. Nonetheless, Hannibal had achieved an extraordinary feet in crossing the Alps and could now advance upon the Rome.  

400 MISSIONS AGAINST 60 TARGETS IN IRAQ

BOMBS ON BAGHDAD
     1991 allied jets bombed Baghdad as war broke out early today. In spite of desperate last-minute peach efforts, the UN deadline for Iraq's Saddam Hussein to  withdraw his troop from Kuwait expired at midnight without an Iraqi response. The action started when US warship in the Gulf launched Cruise missiles at Iraqi targets. In the next four hours allied aircraft flew 400 missions against 60 targets in Iraq. UN Secretary General Perez de Cuellar, President Mubarak of Egypt and King Fahad of Saudi Arabia all sent urgent appeals to Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein yesterday. Perez de Cuellar promised that if the present crisis was averted concrete progress immediately be made on the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Palestinian question, which Saddam consistently linked to his invasion of Kuwait. The appeals were fruitless.

BOMBING OF VIETNAM

NIXON HALTS US BOMBING OF VIETNAM
     1973 US President Nixon today ordered a halt to all bombing of Vietnam by American warplanes, less than a month after the massive US ''Christmas bombing'' raids hit North Vietnam's capital, Hanoi. This initiative comes as the Paris peace conference opens, with a cease-fire to end the conflict believed to be imminent. The Christmas bombing was planed by White House strategists as a means of forcing Viet Cong leaders to moderate their demands at the Paris negotiating table. Women and children were evacuated as Hanoi Hospital was hit by bombs, and 1600 civilians killed when more than 36,000 tons of bombs fell on the city over 12 days, leaving Hanoi a wasteland. In Washington a hostile congress had signaled its intention to limit Nixon's power to wage war if bombing continued.