France sends elite troops to help free yacht hostages

Associated Press ^ | April 7, 2008

[kingattax]

[ladtx]

Typical French, won’t go to Iraq but will go and (attempt) to rescue a yacht.

[crghill]

what exactly are “elite” French Troops anyway?

[Mr. Quarterpanel]

what exactly are “elite” French Troops anyway?

French Foreign Legion, of course!!

[CholeraJoe]

They do have a few. Not all of them are surrender monkeys.

[gc4nra]

We call them the Boy Scouts!

[kingattax]

what exactly are “elite” French Troops anyway?

.."don't you try to be funny with me, monsieur"

[Alter Kaker]

what exactly are “elite” French Troops anyway?

The GIGN. You're welcome to piss them off if you'd like, but I wouldn't rec it. They're some of the most experienced, best trained anti-terrorist special forces in the world.

[balch3]

minor nitpick, the GIGN are police, not military.

[Alter Kaker]

Typical French, won’t go to Iraq but will go and (attempt) to rescue a yacht.

They didn't go to Iraq, but they have gone to Afghanistan. In fact, they just dramatically increased their deployment to Afghanistan.

[cquiggy]

Elite French troops were headed to East Africa to bolster efforts to free captives of a yacht held by pirates off Somalia.

Currently marching backwards they are expected to arrive in an undetermined time frame.

[Pilsner]

From Wikipedia:

The National Gendarmes Intervention Group, commonly abbreviated GIGN (French: Groupe d'Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale), is the French Gendarmerie's elite counter-terrorism and hostage rescue unit. It is composed of 120 men, including 11 officers.

Its missions include the arrest of gunmen, in particular those taking hostages, counter-terrorism, including airplane hijacking, or prevention of mutiny in prisons.

wikipedia.org/wiki/GIGN

[Squidpup]

wheels up at 0500

[lormand]

Telling your enemies that you are sending troops is a mistake.

[Alter Kaker]

Currently marching backwards they are expected to arrive in an undetermined time frame.

That's nice. I take it you're rooting against America's French allies and are instead rooting for the Islamist terrorists. FYI, the GIGN have been responsible for innumerable successful anti-terrorist operations.

In 1994, for instance, they successfully stormed a hijacked Air France flight after determining that terrorists on board intended to fly the plane into the Eiffel Tower. They liberated the passengers and killed every terrorist on board, without a single collateral death. There is no better trained or more experienced hostage rescue unit in the world.

[Alter Kaker]

Telling your enemies that you are sending troops is a mistake.

Why? They're sending troops to the region, not giving away operational details.

The goal is to avoid using the GIGN, using the threat of an attack to convince the terrorists to let their hostages go without bloodshed.

The GIGN doesn't have a great record of taking low value targets prisoner. If I were the terrorists I'd think I'd bitten off a bit more than I can chew.

[Braak]

At this point, if I were the gunmen, I’d make plans for my imminent demise. GIGN doesn’t take prisoners a whole lot when engaged in CT. Few do, but the SAS and GIGN are particularly rough customers.

[DogBarkTree]

Since Sarkozy Ive ended my boycott and stopped making anti French jokes. I wish their “elite troops” good hunting and the safe return of French citizens.

[ArrogantBustard]

I wish their “elite troops” good hunting

Yep. If they're greenlighted, the bad guys will die.

[Braak]

What interests me more is why GIGN and not Commando Hulbert? I thought Commando Hulbert trained more often for maratime CT? Or has GIGN been training for that?