The military chopper crashed late on Friday as it was patrolling the area between the town of Kuda and Kismayo, local Somali official, Captain Sabriye, said.
The crash caused a massive kaboom and sent flames high into the sky.
French helicopters fly over the area, to provide backup for Kenyan forces, who launched an incursion into Somalia in October in pursuit of a
l-Shabaab... Harakat ash-Shabaab al-Mujahidin aka the Mujahideen Youth Movement. It was originally the youth movement of the Islamic Courts, now pretty much all of what's left of it. They are aligned with al-Qaeda but operate more like the Afghan or Pakistani Taliban. The organization's current leader is Ibrahim Haji Jama Mee'aad, also known as Ibrahim
al-Afghani. Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, a Kenyan al-Qaeda member, is considered the group's military leader...
fighters.
In late October, French military front man Colonel Thierry Burkhard said Gay Paree would transport air-borne military equipment to Kenyan soldiers near the Somali border.