1 JANUARY 1916, Page 10

A telegram from General Townshend at Kut-el-Amara, dated December 24th,

announced that the Turks after heavy shelling had breached the fork.but were driven out, leaving two hundred dead inside. The enemy retired to trenches four to nine, hundred yards from the fort, although the attack had been latuached from .trenches .only a hundred yards away. The enemy's ..easuelties altogether were estimated .at seven hundred. The British casualties were about a hundred and seventy. ,