overran more than 130 Spanish blockhouses. The Spanish garrisons were destroyed without mounting a coordinated response to the attacks. By the end of August, Spain had lost all the territories that it had gained in the area since 1909. General Silvestre disappeared and his remains were never found. According to one report, Spanish sergeant Francisco Basallo Becerra from the Kandussi garrison, an outpost east of Annual, identified the remains of Silvestre by his general's sash. A Moorish courier from Kaddur Namar said that eight days after the battle, he saw the corpse of the general lying face down on the battlefield and still recognizable by his sash and epaulettes. Spanish retreat At Afrau, on the coast, Spanish warships evacuated the garrison. At Zoco el Telata de Mtalsa, in the south, Spanish troops and civilians retreated to the French Zone. Spanish survivors of the battle retreated some to the spread-out fortified base of Monte Arruit, which was built between 1912 and 1916 and located south of Melilla. There, a stand was attempted under the leadership of General Felipe Navarro. As the position was surrounded, and cut off from water and supplies, General Berenguer authorised its surrender on August 9. The Rifians did not respect the conditions of surrender and killed 3,000 Spanish soldiers. General Navarro was taken prisoner, along with 534 military personnel and 53 civilians; they were ransomed some years later. Melilla was only some away, but the garrison there was in no position to help since the city was almost defenceless and lacked properly-trained troops. The exhausted and demoralised survivors of Annual who reached Melilla were in no condition to reinforce the existing garrison effectively. However, the Rifian forces had largely dispersed following the capture of Monte Arruit, leaving Abd-el-Krim with insufficient men to lay siege to Melilla. In addition, citizens of other European nations lived in Melilla, and he did not wish to risk international intervention. Abd-el-Krim later stated that to have been his greatest mistake. Spain quickly assembled about 14,000 reinforcements from elite units of the Army of Africa, which had been operating south of Tetuan in the Western Zone. They mainly comprised units of the Spanish Legion who had been newly raised in 1920, and Moroccan regulares. Transferred to Melilla by sea, the reinforcements enabled the city to be held and Monte Arruit to be retaken by the end of November. The Spaniards may have lost