 One was an attack on El-Halia, a sulphur-mining community where 130 Europeans had lived with about 2,000 Algerian Muslims in peace.President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt was an outspoken supporter of the FLN and Radio Cairo regularly broadcast messages calling on the Arabs of Algeria to rise up against the French.Shortly before noon on 20 August four groups of fifteen to twenty FLN commandos each, accompanied by local Muslims went from house to house in the European quarter of the village.