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| Africa Horn | |
| Somali pirates seized after hostages are freed | |
| 2008-04-12 | |
| French commandos have seized a gang of Somali pirates and bags of ransom cash, ending a week-long operation to free 30 hostages from a luxury yacht. The troops swooped on a village in north-eastern Somalia, arresting six pirates and recovering "interesting bags" - money paid by the owners of the 288ft Le Ponant for the release of the crew, 22 of whom were French. The yacht had been seized last Friday in the Gulf of Aden as it sailed towards the Suez Canal, bound for the Mediterranean, from the Seychelles. France dispatched two helicopter carriers carrying around 50 commandos to Djibouti in response. French officials said the owners of the yacht paid a ransom - reported to be about £1 million - to obtain the freedom of the crew. As soon as it was clear that they were all safe, the commandos went into action aboard helicopters to track down the pirates. Gen Jean-Louis Georgelin said the soldiers tracked the pirates, believed to be Somali fishermen, after they reached land and moved in when they saw some of the gang getting away in a car. He said a sniper in one helicopter disabled the car engine while another helicopter dropped off three soldiers who captured the six pirates. They were quickly transferred to a French navy vessel off the coast.
France said that no "public funds" had been used to pay the ransom. "We don't know how much they paid and really, we don't want to know," said Karim Meghoufel, whose brother-in-law was the yacht's chief pastry chef, after a meeting with President Nicolas Sarkozy. There were conflicting accounts last night of the rescue operation. Mr Sarkozy said it had been executed "without incident" and Bernard Kouchner, his foreign minister, welcomed a "happy ending" to the stand-off. However, regional Somali governors and witnesses claimed that the French troops killed up to five local people. The district commissioner of Garaad, where the attack took place, said the helicopters landed and troops jumped out to grab 14 pirates who had just come ashore where three pick-up trucks with heavy weapons were waiting. "Local residents came out to the see the helicopters on the ground. The helicopters took off and fired rockets on the vehicles and the residents there, killing five local people," he said. Mohamed Ibrahim, a witness, said: "I could see clouds of smoke as six helicopters were bombing the pirates. The pirates were also firing anti-aircraft machine guns in reaction. I cannot tell the exact casualties." French officials "categorically" denied any casualties, insisting that the operation had been conducted with minimal force for fear of causing collateral damage. They said the only shot fired was by the sniper to disable the engine of a vehicle containing the pirates, who "gave themselves up without too much difficulty". Pirates seized more than two dozen ships off Somalia last year, despite United States navy-led international patrols in the region. France said it would present new anti-piracy measures to fellow members of the United Nations Security Council next week aimed at toughening the war against sea bandits. Jean-David Levitte, the French president's chief diplomatic adviser, said: "We are confronted by a real, real threat," adding that over the past 10 years 3,200 sailors had been kidnapped by pirates, 500 injured and 160 killed. | |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #13 He said a sniper in one helicopter disabled the car engine while another helicopter dropped off three soldiers who captured the six pirates. They were quickly transferred to a French navy vessel off the coast. The French GIGN specialize in this sort of operation. And they are very VERY good at it. I don't have many nice things to say about the French, so I feel obligated to give credit where it is due. |
| Posted by: Free Radical 2008-04-12 21:46 |
| #12 The pirates were also firing anti-aircraft machine guns in reaction. Better check to see if those fishermen had the proper duck stamps. |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2008-04-12 20:18 |
| #11 No. They can drink anytime. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2008-04-12 13:47 |
| #10 French warships still have yardarms, don't they? |
| Posted by: Mike 2008-04-12 13:44 |
| #9 Well, sounds like they have a couple of days to use them anyway. |
| Posted by: gorb 2008-04-12 13:42 |
| #8 "kinder, gentler" interrogation techniques off the Somali coast, that technique would be shark and the interrogatee would be chum. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2008-04-12 13:18 |
| #7 I'm sure the French will use "kinder, gentler" interrogation techniques on the pirates, to find out where the rest of their herd is holed up. THEN we might see some ground action. I doubt any of the pirates that were captured will be back to "work" any time soon. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2008-04-12 13:11 |
| #6 Those silly scurvy dogs..should of made them walk the plank. |
| Posted by: Slappy 2008-04-12 12:31 |
| #5 "Local residents came out to the see the helicopters on the ground. The helicopters took off and fired rockets on the vehicles and the residents there, killing five local people," he said. Yeah. Right. I'm sure there was a huge need to lay waste to lots of women and children who were there to gawk at the proceedings. I'm sure you'd feel that way if your name was Mohamhead, anyway. That seems to be the only way they can think. Mohamed Ibrahim, a witness, said: "I could see clouds of smoke as six helicopters were bombing the pirates. The pirates were also firing anti-aircraft machine guns in reaction. I cannot tell the exact casualties." Anti-aircraft weapons?! Probably in a technical vehicle. Makes me wonder if the pirates were locals. |
| Posted by: gorb 2008-04-12 12:02 |
| #4 a sniper in one helicopter disabled the car engine I've often wondered why American cops don't use this tactic when they're chasing bad guys on the freeways. |
| Posted by: Snusoque Turkeyneck1280 2008-04-12 11:31 |
| #3 More details at this link ... A sniper in one helicopter shot out the car engine while another helicopter dropped off three French soldiers who captured the six pirates and hauled them off to French navy helicopter carrier waiting off the Somali coast. *** Georgelin said no public money was paid to free the hostages but he indicated that the ships owner had paid a ransom, part of which was found with the escaping pirates. ... Local witnesses said an unknown number of people were killed by the rocket fire, which also destroyed three vehicles. "I could see clouds of smoke as six helicopters were bombing the pirates. The pirates were also firing anti-aircraft machine guns in reaction. I cannot tell the exact casualties," witness Mohamed Ibrahim told Reuters by radio telephone. The district commissioner of Garaad, where the attack took place, said the helicopters landed and troops jumped out to grab members of a group of 14 pirates who had just come ashore where three pickup trucks with heavy weapons were waiting. "Local residents came out to the see the helicopters on the ground. The helicopters took off and fired rockets on the vehicles and the residents there, killing five local people," Commissioner Abdiaziz Olu-Yusuf Mohamed told Reuters by phone. In Paris, French officials said that the operation was conducted with minimal use of force for fear of causing collateral damage. They said a Gazelle helicopter with a sniper on board and a Panther helicopter with three commandos on board were involved in the incident. In addition two more missile-armed Gazelle helicopters stood by in support but did not intervene. They said the only shot fired was by the sniper to disable the engine of a vehicle containing the pirates. "No shots were fired directly at the pirates," Jean-Louis Georgelin, chief of the armed forces general staff, told a news conference. "The shot from the first Gazelle was enough to stop the vehicle and get out the pirates, who gave themselves up without too much difficulty," he said. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2008-04-12 11:06 |
| #2 Betcha the French used top secret magic dust like a GPS tracker in the bags! |
| Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 2008-04-12 09:21 |
| #1 However, regional Somali governors and witnesses claimed that the French troops killed up to five local people. If true, they're lucky. I'd have flattened the village. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2008-04-12 08:50 |