2010-07-28 10:34

HAVANA - Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro announced on Tuesday that he would release a book "within a few days" about his guerrilla life in the years dating back to the 1959 revolution.

Related readings:  Fidel Castro urges US to stop 'using violence'  Fidel Castro appears again, warns of war  Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro reappears on TV  Cuban bloggers show public photos of Fidel Castro

The book, titled The Strategic Victory, will tell readers how the 300 fighters led by Castro eventually prevailed over the government forces of dictator Fulgencio Batista in the Sierra Maestra mountains, Castro wrote in a "Reflections" column published on the Cubadebate website.

Castro led a guerrilla group beginning on December 2, 1956, to fight against the government of Fulgencio Batista and finally overthrew the dictator on January 1, 1959, turning a new page in the Cuban history.

The book will have 25 chapters and include many photographs, maps and diagrams on the types of weapons used by both sides.

Castro said he worked on the text during his recovery from a serious illness in 2006, when Raul Castro took over and assumed duties of the country's leader.

"I thought it would take months to publish it, but now I know it will come out in early August," Castro wrote.

The former Cuban leader said he was "now encouraged to continue writing the second part of the story, which should be named The Final Strategic Counteroffensive, if the team does not suggest another name."

"I did not want to wait to respond to the numerous questions about my childhood, adolescence and youth, and how I became a revolutionary and armed combatant," he said.

Castro, who turns 84 in August, returned in early July to public life.