in a series of consecutive murders all taking place in 1925. Mihaylov's group of young IMRO cadres soon fell into conflict with the older group of the organization. The latter were in favour of the old tactics of incursions by armed bands in Yugoslavia and Greece, whereas the former favoured more flexible tactics, with smaller terrorist cells, carrying selective assassinations of public figures. The conflict grew into a leadership struggle and Mihaylov soon, in turn, ordered the assassination in 1928 of a rival leader of the older group, General Aleksandar Protogerov, which sparked a fratricidal war between "Mihaylovists" and "Protogerovists". The less numerous and ill-equipped Protogerovists soon became allied with Yugoslavia and certain Bulgarian military circles as Zveno, who favoured rapprochement with Yugoslavia. That period led to the intensification of the armed struggle of the organization in Aegean, and especially in Vardar Macedonia. A total of 63 terrorist acts and attacks on bridges, warehouses, Serbian police stations and military targets were undertaken between 1922 and 1930, the number of assassinated Serbian officials and collaborators numbered in the thousands IMRO had de facto control of Pirin Macedonia and acted as a "state within a state", which it used as a base for hit and run attacks against Yugoslavia with the unofficial support of Bulgaria and later Fascist Italy, also establishing close links with the Croatian Ustaše movement. Numerous assassinations were carried out by IMRO activists in many countries, the majority of which occurred in Yugoslavia. The most spectacular of these was the assassination of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia and the French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou in Marseille in 1934, in collaboration with Ante Pavelić. IMRO's constant fratricidal killings and assassinations abroad provoked some within the Bulgarian military to take control and attempt to crush the organization after the Bulgarian coup d'état of 1934. In 1934, Mihaylov fled to Turkey and ordered his supporters not to resist the Bulgarian army and to accept the disarmament peacefully, potentially avoiding a civil war or foreign invasion. Many inhabitants of Pirin Macedonia met this disbandment with satisfaction because it was perceived as relief from an unlawful and quite often brutal parallel authority. Mihaylov had nine life sentences and three death sentences in Bulgaria. Although IMRO's main goal had always been the creation of an independent Macedonian state, some previous Bulgarian governments tolerated it as its goal was the liberation of Macedonia from Greek and