File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [‎84v] (177/834)

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carriages. The contents of the train were flour, foodstuffs a
truck of horses, about fifteen Turkish officers who were proceed
ing to Tebuk to relieve the officers there, and one carriage
containing Suleiman ibn Rif ad a and his staff.
The engine was completely destroyed by the explosion, but
the Arabs were disturbed in their looting operations by the arrival
of Turkish reinforcements. They, however, succeeded in capturing
L T 24 000 in gold and five horses, and destroyed a considerable
amount of foodstuffs. Five Turkish officers were killed, and
Suleiman ibn Rifada and several of his staff. 1 he remainder ot
the people on the train made good their escape in the melee.
Sherif Mohammed Ali and a section of the Beni Atiyah, and
with them Captain Pisani and a French section, are at Um Shatia,
and are continuing the operations against the railway line
commenced bv the armoured cars on January 1.
Sherif Zeid left Akaba on January 5, and will probably be
sent north by Sherif Feisal. Sheikh Yusuf Khosherim is
representing the Sherifian authorities in Akaba during the
absence of both Emirs,”
The Arabs have now occupied Tafila (twenty miles north of
Shobek) and captured the whole garrison of eighty Turks.
Sherif Nasir withdrew from Jurf (wrongly called Jauf on our
maps) el-Derwish after a few days’ occupation and his Huweitat
have gone to the wells east of that place. It is reported that
300 Turks have arrived at el-Hasa from the north.
We now learn that severe fighting took place at the Hishe
railhead before the "Turks, numbering some 000, withdrew to
Kalaat el-Aneizeh.
Sherif Abdullah, influenced by certain of his Syrian officers,
has recently shown some reluctance to undertake any serious
operations against the railway. According to deserters’
information, there is a plentiful supply of wood near the line
both north and south of el-Ula, and several large wood-cutting
parties are continually at work, especially at a place three stations
south of Medain Saleh. The garrison of the latter place is
reported to consist of 500 men with four Mantelli guns.
Captain Depui, the French officer with Sherif Ali, reports
that an Arab patrol of Masruh Harb stopped a lorry containing
five Turks near a post called Suluj, about ten miles north-west
of Medina. The Turks were killed, and rifles, equipment and
ammunition Avere taken. On the arrival of reinforcements the
Arabs retired on Dersiya, three miles south-east of Muheit
station.
Another party of Sherif All’s Arabs recently attacked a
Turkish convoy eight miles east of Medina on the Shakra road.
The convoy surrendered after a stiff fight, and the booty is said