French commandos swoop after pirates free hostages

Reuters ^ | By Crispian Balmer

[Eurotwit]

"It was an intervention not a pulverization," General Jean-Louis Georgelin, head of the armed forces general staff told a news conference in Paris."

Pity, I prefer pulverizations.

Cheers.

[2banana]

A French admiral was also parachuted into the sea and picked up by the task force to help lead the operation.

Yeah - right...

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

For all the keyboard warriors who make fun of the french, I bet none of them would want to go face to face with any of the group that carried out this mission. Good post.

[NormsRevenge]

What?
No HellFiRe?

damn, just damn.

[farlander]

“A French admiral was also parachuted into the sea and picked up by the task force to help lead the operation.”

Well then. Who in the hell was on that yacht that it required parachuting an Admiral no less into the sea so he could oversee the rescue operation ?

Quite a bold move for the French, no less. Whaddya know, a conservative president gets elected and Frech start showing spine. This calls for a nice bottle of Bordeaux.

[farlander]

Yea I wondered about that myself. Waaaay to hunt for red octoberish/hollywood. Don’t they have helipads on the back of them cruisers or something ? :)

[wideawake]

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

Wow, those pirates are really swell, treating their prisoners so nice and all.

Wait a minute . . .

3,200 sailors had been kidnapped by pirates, 500 injured and 160 killed.

Oh, so they treat them well - by wounding or murdering more than one out of every five captives.

Thanks, Reuters!

[Mr. Lucky]

Well, ya gotta admit that paying them a ransom and then killing 5 of them was sort of a nice touch.

[ASA Vet]

SOCOM Ping!

[WayneS]

Good work, guys.

I really didn’t think France has it in them any more.

Thanks for proving me wrong.

[bboop]

‘to the shores of Tripoli’ — some things never change.

Hooray for Sarkozy. Go Frenchies!!

[blasater1960]

I was going to make a wisecrack....but then just read about our Navy shooting a "flare" at a Iranian terror boat. OOOoohh a flare.

It's the whole of Western Civ that sucks not just the French.

[farlander]

Yea the other 4 our 5 are served tea, milk and cookies, to be paid for out the pirates share of the ransom...

[george76]

I prefer pulverizations

[blam]

Excellent news.

The Sarkozy French.

I even bought some Michelein tires after Sarkozy was elected.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

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

---

Not clear if anyone was killed and if anyone was killed, it’s not clear if they were pirates or “locals” or what.

[steveyp]

Single shot through the engine block.

[Belasarius]

We heap imprecations on the French as a matter of course but I believe them to be quite blood-thirsty and ruthless when it impacts something they consider to be touching on their honor and own self-interest. Normally, their moralism is out front and on display but carefully tucked away for safekeeping when throats need to be cut. If we were ever really intending to murder somebody for political reasons I believe we could get a Frenchman to hold our coat.

They seem to be able intervene in Africa whenever they want without a peep from anybody. Nobody considers their forays on the continent to be imperialist gestures therefore they have a freedom of action that would be quite useful if we had it.

[Eurotwit]

According to Norwegian media. 3 were killed and 8 wounded. The pirates apparently had their hands on AAA which was used against the choppers.

Cheers.

[CholeraJoe]

A French admiral was also parachuted into the sea and picked up by the task force to help lead the operation.

Tough guy. I never parachuted into the sea but I jumped out of helos into it a few times. Swells almost drowned me.