French Police Battle Youths; 14 Injured

A third consecutive night of violence in this southern French town left 14 riot police injured, three of them seriously, in clashes with youths, police said Monday.

Fifty to 70 youths, many wielding iron bars and throwing firebombs, were involved in the latest flare-up Sunday night, they said.

Locals said most of the rioters were the children of harkis , the Arab name for Algerians who fought on the French side during the Algerian war and who sought safety in France in the 1960s.

Rejected as traitors in Algeria and the victims of racism in France, the 420,000 members of the harki community living in France view themselves as social outcasts.

After two nights of looting and fighting, the youths staged a daylong standoff with police Sunday, calling for three arrested friends to be released. Fighting broke out again as night fell.

The Narbonne district was the latest French suburb to explode into violence. Public concern about what has been dubbed “suburb sickness” has risen as bitter weekend clashes between unemployed youths and police become increasingly frequent.

Many of the youths involved are the children of France’s 3.6 million immigrants.