 Aussaresses set up the unit and started to collect intelligence and establish a network of informants and field agents.The FLN had been hard-pressed by the relentless attacks on the French Army, and two leaders of the FLN, namely Zighoud Youcef and Lakhdar Ben Tobbal decided that a spectacularly brutal operation in Philippeville would not only relieve the pressure on the FLN forces elsewhere, but also attract worldwide attention to their cause and create a situation in Algeria where one could either be for the FLN or the French.Even as late as 1955, there still moderates within the Muslim community were not prepared to give up on the French, and who believed it still possible for the Muslims to become French citizens in practice as well as in theory.