Somali pirates 'killed in French rocket attack'

[Che -Guevara]

Nicolas Sarkozy today strongly denied reports that three people were killed in a French military operation against Somalian pirates.

 

The French President "categorically denied" claims from eyewitnesses that French helicopters fired rockets at the pirates this afternoon, soon after they released 30 hostages from a captured luxury yacht off the Somalian coast.

 

Eight other people were reportedly wounded and eight more captured in the operation, which took place in the Garaad district of Northern Somalia.

 

“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,” Mohamed Ibrahim, an eyewitness, said.

 

The district commissioner of Garaad described how the helicopters landed and troops jumped out to grab members of a group of 14 pirates who had just come ashore.

 

“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 said.

 

French officials said that the operation was conducted with minimal use of force for fear of causing collateral damage.

 

The pirates, part of a group known as “the Somali Marines”, seized the Le Ponant yacht last Friday in the Gulf of Aden. Onboard were 30 crew members, 22 of them French.

 

They sailed 32-cabin, three-masted vessel to Puntland, a breakaway northern region of Somalia. Francois Fillon, the Prime Minister, deployed France’s elite counter-terrorism and hostage rescue unit to tracked the ship using helicopters and a naval vessel, but said authorities would not resort to force.

 

After protracted negotiations between the ship owner and the pirates, all 30 crew members were eventually released this morning.

 

In a statement, Sarkozy expressed “his deep gratitude to the French army forces and all the state services who helped bring about a quick end, without incident, to this hostage taking."

 

The French authorities maintain that soldiers simply arrested six pirates and flown them to a navy ship. Jean-Louis Georgelin, chief of the armed forces, said a Gazelle helicopter with a sniper on board had fired at a vehicle containing a pirate but that “no shots were fired directly at the pirates.”

 

“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.

 

Valerie Garrec, whose 20-year-old son Thibaut was among the hostages, praised Sarkozy’s handling of the crisis after receiving a call from the president’s office announcing the good news around midday today.

 

“They said they were free and safe and we don’t know anything more. Now I am waiting to speak to my son by phone,” Ms Garrec said from her home in Brittany, northern France.

 

Bernard Kouchner, the Foreign Minister, said preparations were being made to return the freed hostages to France as soon as possible.

 

The hostages were apparently being held by the “Somali Marines,” described as the most powerful gang of pirates operating off the country’s coast.

 

Mr Kouchner on Friday urged the international community to take action to fight piracy in the Gulf of Aden and off the Somali coast and said talks were underway at the United Nations on the issue.

 

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[General Duke]

These pirates need to be fought off.

 

But the international community should assist training and equiping Somali national troops instead of sending war ships.

[Libaax-Sankataabte]

These pirates got played by the French. The pirates were captured and few of their relatives were killed without any single harm to the French hostages. Now that is a clever commando mission.

 

The "Somali Marines" were not real marines after all. They were ragtag militia boys hoping to strike rich.

 

Shame.

[Juje]

And it all happened after they released the hostages and the ship.

[General Duke]

The French are wel known for their ruthlessness. A bad mistake indeed.

[Laba-X]

Originally posted by Libaax-Sankataabte:

These pirates got played by the French. The pirates were captured

and few of their relatives were killed without any single harm to the French hostages. Now that is a clever commando mission.

 

Shame.

Sidaad ugu sacaba-tumaysid wexay ila tahay aad ayaad ugu faraxday arrinkan. Libaax, Allaylehe Libaax!

[Jacpher]

And it all happened after they released the hostages and the ship.

Ma la hubaa?

[Emperor]

^Yes, it happened after the hostages were released, the Frencch are Khiyaanolayaal not that the pirates are any better... But they made a great mistake that the next hostages taken will pay... No pirate will ever release a hostage that easy...

[Allamagan]

Deeply saddened by this news. RIP.

[Som@li]

French commandos launch swoop on pirates

 

Friday, April 11, 2008

By Crispian Balmer

 

 

French commandos seized six pirates in Somalia during a daring helicopter raid launched shortly after the bandits had released the 30-strong crew of a luxury yacht hijacked last week.

 

French officials said the owners of the yacht paid a ransom to obtain the freedom of the crew and as soon as it was clear they were all safe, the commandos went into action aboard helicopters to track down the pirates.

 

A district commissioner in Somalia told Reuters five local people had died in the attack, but the French military denied killing anyone in the daylight raid.

 

"It was an intervention, not a pulverisation," said General Jean-Louis Georgelin, head of the armed forces general staff.

 

"When we captured the pirates we also recovered some interesting bags," he said, making clear some - although not all - of the ransom had been recovered in the raid.

 

He declined to say how much money had been paid over by the ship's owners and said no public money was involved.

 

Georgelin said the French military tracked the pirates, believed to be Somali fishermen, after they made landfall and moved in when they saw some of the gang getting away in a car.

 

A sniper in one helicopter shot out the car engine while another helicopter dropped off three elite French soldiers who captured the six pirates and hauled them off to French navy helicopter carrier waiting off the Somali coast.

 

"It is the first time an act of piracy in this area has been resolved so quickly ... and it is also the first time that some of the pirates have been apprehended," Admiral Edouard Guillard told a news conference in Paris.

 

French officials said the pirates, believed to be Somali fishermen, would be tried in France. They said Paris would also seek much tougher UN action against maritime piracy.

 

About 12 pirates grabbed the three-masted yacht, the Ponant, on Friday 850km out to sea in the Gulf of Aden. They then sailed the boat to the Somali coast, eventually mooring the vessel at Garaad, near the town of Eyl.

 

The French navy sent two boats to the area, with four or five helicopters on board and about 50 commandos. A French admiral was also parachuted into the sea and picked up by the task force to help lead the operation.

 

The foreign ministry said the crew, 22 of whom are French, would be repatriated as soon as possible. Most of the other crew members came from Ukraine and the Philippines.

 

General Georgelin said President Nicolas Sarkozy made clear he wanted all the hostages released without harm, but added the military would "probably" have intervened if the pirates had tried to split up the group or taken them off the boat.

 

The commando raid was only sanctioned once all the hostages were safely aboard the Jeanne D'Arc helicopter carrier.

 

Piracy is lucrative off lawless Somalia and most kidnappers treat their captives well in anticipation of a good ransom.

 

France said it would present new anti-piracy measures to fellow members of the UN security council next week aimed at toughening the war against sea banditry.

 

"This phenomenon is increasing, with the pirates becoming ever better equipped and organised," said Jean-David Levitte, Sarkozy's chief diplomatic adviser.

 

"We are confronted by a real, real threat," he said, adding that over the last 10 years 3,200 sailors had been kidnapped by pirates, 500 injured and 160 killed.

 

He said countries such as Somalia that had a problem with piracy needed to open their seas to international naval patrols and countries with strong navies, such as France and Britain, needed to set up counter-piracy units.

 

Source: Reuters, April 11, 2008

[Libaax-Sankataabte]

Originally posted by Laba_Xiniinyood:

quote:Originally posted by Libaax-Sankataabte:

These pirates got played by the French. The pirates were captured

and few of their relatives were killed without any single harm to the French hostages. Now that is a clever commando mission.

 

Shame.

Sidaad ugu sacaba-tumaysid wexay ila tahay aad ayaad ugu faraxday arrinkan. Libaax, Allaylehe Libaax!

Xiniinle, more like angry Awoowe. It is shame (and I said it) these guys would be fooled and played like that by these French (Excuse my language here ). Why release hostages when you don't even have a safe exit yourself? Kuwaas oo kale ayaa Somali ceebeeyey. Waxna iskama celin karaan, dhibaatona joojin mayaay ... caruurtooda ayuunbaa gawda laga guri.

 

PS: three of these "pirates" held by the French are my own "cousins" and it was shocking when the call came last night that ina hebel and ina hebel are some of the characters in French jail.

[Som@li]

Pirates deserve no mercy, they get what they deserve.

[LANDER]

All around clever mission by the French. Duke why are they ruthless? did they cramp on uncle's piracy business?

[General Duke]

^^^Adeer the pirates, Al Shabaab and all instabilities in Somalia only benefit the secessionists.

 

My uncle is the President of the republic of Somalia adeer. Stability, law and order benefits the President and those who love the union.

[SJ]

Arent the french familiar with somali customs? AANO! NO french looking/speaking person will be freely yp roam around safely till the french return the captives with their money.

 

mise traditions waa laga tagay?