Posted on 07/27/2010 11:37:32 AM PDT by Lorianne
PARIS (AP) -- France is "at war" with al Qaeda and will step up efforts to fight the terrorist group's North African offshoot after it executed a French hostage in the Sahara, Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Tuesday.
Mr. Fillon acknowledged that the group may have killed 78-year-old hostage Michel Germaneau before -- not after -- a failed last-ditch raid to try to free him.
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb said in an audio message broadcast Sunday that it had killed Mr. Germaneau in retaliation for a raid last week by Mauritanian and French forces that killed at least six al Qaeda militants.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy confirmed the killing Monday, vowing that the perpetrators "will not go unpunished."
His prime minister said Tuesday that France will reinforce efforts to work with governments in northwest Africa fighting al Qaeda in the sparsely populated swath of desert that includes the borders dividing Mauritania, Mali, Algeria and Niger.
"We are at war against al Qaeda," Mr. Fillon said on Europe-1 radio. He said, without elaborating, that France "thwarts several attacks every year."
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Tuesday from Mauritania that the Sahel region in question "will not be left to terrorist bands, arms and drug traffickers."
"The combat risks being long, but we will continue it," Mr. Kouchner said after meeting with Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz. Mr. Sarkozy sent the minister to the region this week to discuss, among other things, security for French citizens.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
I thought France had already surrendered to the muzzies.........
Didn’t France pay millions under the table to Al Qaeda for the release of other kidnapped victims?
You reap what you sow, idiots.
French leaders do and say many things purely for PR value and media sound bites. They sometimes make our politicians look like boy scouts.
Actually, where selfish national interest is involved, especially in a former colonial stomping ground, France doesn't mess around. This could get interesting, if another player in Western civilization decides to wake up.
Hey Sarkozy: Miss GW yet?
How? Do the muzzies trip over the rifles you throw to the ground at the first sign of trouble?
Gee, I wonder what a Crusade looks like when it starts . . .
Charles Martel was a Frank (ancient/early French-Germanic people), my ancestry is “french”, “german” and eastern EU.
sometimes as in this case, the middle ages-crusades, and our War of Indpendence and right afterward the French DO get it right!
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