Do you have references to France "unleashing the hounds"?
Look up Algeria some time. They were brutal.
Send in the Legion! No political correctness there.
On November 6, 2004, aircraft from the Ivoirian Government struck a French military base, resulting in the deaths of nine French troops and the wounding of an additional 31. In retaliation, the French military detrsoyed two Sukhoi-25 aircraft, in addition to five helicopter and an Ivorian army weapons cache, effectively destroying the Ivory Coast Air Force. The order to retaliate was reported to have come directly from French President Jacques Chirac. The U.N. Security Council, meanwhile held an emergency session to discuss the situation in the country and called for an end to all military operations by Ivory Coast forces.
In the meantime, pro-Gbagbo militants, begun setting fire to a number of French schools in the capital, Abidjan, and looting French property. In response to escalating tensions, the French military dispatched three Mirage jet aircraft to another French military base in Libreville in nearby Gabon, to be put on standby. The French Ministry of Defense, on the following day, announced that it was dispatching as well an additional 600 troops as reinforcements; 300 of which were dispatched from Libreville, while the remaining 300, along with a squadron of gendarmes, were being ferried from Istres, France aboard three airbus aircraft.
After an aerial attack caused the deaths of nine French soldiers and one American civilian, the French reacted by destroying most Ivorian air assets and seizing the airport. In response, there were widespread confrontations between Ivorian demonstrators and the French military, resulting in some Ivorian civilian and military deaths. These incidents were accompanied by widespread rioting, looting, and violence in Abidjan and elsewhere, directed against the French, but also other expatriate and some Ivorian individuals, homes, and businesses. French schools in Abidjan were destroyed and have not since reopened.