What kind of swag was in the bag?
Posted on 04/11/2008 12:28:17 PM PDT by Eurotwit
PARIS (Reuters) - French commandos seized six pirates in Somalia on Friday 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 that they were all safe, the commandos went into action aboard helicopters to track down the pirates.
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.
"It was an intervention not a pulverization," General Jean-Louis Georgelin, head of the armed forces general staff told a news conference in Paris.
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 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 the news conference.
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.
"When we captured the pirates we also recovered some interesting bags," he said.
French media reported that $2 million was paid by the owners, but family members who met President Nicolas Sarkozy said they were simply relieved that the hostages were free.
"We don't know how much they paid and really, we don't want to know," Karim Meghoufel, whose brother-in-law was the yacht's chief pastry chef, told reporters at the Elysee Palace.
PARACHUTE MISSION
Around 12 pirates grabbed the three-masted yacht, the Ponant, last Friday, about 850 km out to sea in the Gulf of Aden. They then sailed the boat to the Somali coast, eventually mooring at Garaad, near the town of Eyl.
The French navy sent 2 boats to the area, with 4 or 5 helicopters on board and around 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 that the military would "probably" have intervened if the pirates had tried to split up the group or taken them off the boat.
French officials said the pirates would be tried in France. They said Paris would also seek much tougher United Nations action against maritime piracy.
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 United Nations Security Council next week aimed at toughening the war against sea banditry.
"This phenomenon is increasing, with the pirates becoming ever better equipped and organized," said Jean-David Levitte, Sarkozy's chief diplomatic advisor.
"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.
(Additional reporting by Abdiqani Hassan in Somalia and Emmanuel Jarry in Paris, editing by Giles Elgood)
"Good work, guys....I really didn’t think France has it in them any more."
I'm guessing this was either GIGN, the 2nd REP of the Foreign Legion, or some combination thereof...and indeed, they are both very, very well trained organizations.
Must have been somebody rich and important. That was no run of the mill yacht. Looked like it was worth something that only the top 500 richest people could afford.
So do I but kudos to the French for going in after them.
So let me just get these facts straight.
The hostages were free. The ship was returned. Their was no imminent threat.
The French acted ‘unilaterally’ in international waters as well as on the sovergn territory of another country. This was entirely a preemptive war to make sure that this sort of thing didn’t occur again, or atleast not with these bad actors.
Well it’s about damn time te French showed up to the party. Yeeeehaaawwwww....
.... oooohhhh I forgot to ask. One more question here. Who carried the white flag incase there was any problems?
A big part of their freedom to act abroad begins with limiting the political opposition at home...and this is, by design, one of the purposes of having a Foreign Legion. Even though nowadays a large percentage of the FFL enlisted consist of Frenchmen, the perception is that it is a mercenary army of foreigners, and consequently French politicians can afford to become embroiled (to a certain extent) in overseas adventures without being accused of needlessly spilling the blood of Frenchmen.
What kind of swag was in the bag?
I think I read GIGN in an earlier report and there also some references to Task Force 150, who may have played a behind the scenes role, who knows?
French helicopters fire after seizing Somali pirates
BOSASSO, Somalia -- French military helicopters on Friday fired rockets at pirates who had released hostages they had been holding on a captured luxury yacht off the coast of Somalia, 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 gotten 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.
There was no immediate confirmation of the attack from French authorities, which earlier said soldiers had arrested six pirates and flown them to a navy ship that had been tracking the Ponant yacht since it was seized last week in the Gulf of Aden.
Aren't those made by an Italian or German owned company?
I'm not so sure who owns what anymore in this world of hostile take overs.
Sounds like the pirates captured themselves a nice new helicopter and an admiral to ransom too! /s
Not all the French are euroweenies. Indeed, there are many bad asses over there, they are just few and far between.
“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.”
From what I have noticed from their foreign activities over my lifetime they bring an element to their personal interests that the U.S. doesn’t.
My experience with the 13th RDP in the 80s also reinforced my views that they do what they want, when they want.
By the way it looks like GIGN conducted the raid not the Legion or the 13th RDP.
“A team of the GIGN commando force that conducts anti-terrorist and hostage rescue operations is being sent to Djibouti to “reinforce” negotiation teams in place, the French foreign ministry said.”
Some enterprising PMC needs to buy up some good-sized fancy yachts, and a bunch of BOFORS 40mm guns, and go pirate-hunting. I can’t imagine there aren’t at least a few deep-pocketed persons, or commercial shipping concerns, that would sure like easier passage for maritime transport through the East Africa region.
At least an Exocet...
Maybe it could do some kinetic damage, or the engine could start a fire among the pirates.
Must be related to the Clintons.
"Part of which" sounds like some got away.
Parachute another admiral into the sea until you get them all!
Dead or captured, at least some bad guys are out of circulation. The French did the job, more power to ‘em.
"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 ?"
Nathan Zachary wrote:
"Must have been somebody rich and important. That was no run of the mill yacht. Looked like it was worth something that only the top 500 richest people could afford."
Who was aboard the yacht was probably of less importance than the fact that what French forces were about to do had the potential of becoming a major international incident. It was therefore important that the operation be in direct control af an admiral who would give the orders and take the flack for their consequences.
I don't see it as a rescue operation. France knew that the ships owners' or the charterparty owners' relatives were about to pay the ransom and that the customary practice would be that the hostages would be released unharmed.
France was embarking on a punishment operation. This is necessary to foster clearer thinking on the part of those who would interfere with French citizens going about their lawful business on the high seas.
Only if REUTERS could write so gloriously about our brave US troops in Iraq who are doing just a tad more than saving rich people on a yacht from "hooligans."
bump
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