Posted on 03/16/2012 8:32:49 PM PDT by Cincinna
France on Friday banned soldiers stationed in the southwest from wearing uniform outside barracks after three paratroopers were shot dead in twin cold-blooded attacks.
"Security advice has been given, particularly at the entrances of military bases," an army spokesman told AFP, adding that soldiers "have notably been asked not to wear their uniform outside barracks".
The increased security measures apply to a whole swathe of the southwest, including Toulouse, Montauban, Pamiers and Tarbes, towns and cities that are home to most of France's elite airborne units.
The announcement came as police hunted a black-clad gunman who on Thursday calmly shot three soldiers on a shopping street in garrison town Montauban, taking the time to turn one over to finish him off at close range.
Two of the victims -- parachute sappers aged 26 and 24 -- died on the spot and a third 28-year-old from the same regiment was in critical condition following the attack.
The soldiers were killed opposite their barracks, on a street named after the renowned 1st Shock Battalion. Their unit, the 17th Parachute Engineering Regiment, recently served in Afghanistan.
The attack followed a similar killing of a soldier from another airborne regiment four days earlier in Toulouse, a city 46 kilometres (29 miles) south of Montauban.
(Excerpt) Read more at france24.com ...
Because of political correctness ... now, on to the next question ...
Thank you for this article, and please ping me to any more threads.
I wonder if the killer is Basque.
I don’t have any evidence at all to support this. It is just that those towns are all stamping grounds for Basque militants. And a Basque can always rely upon the suppport of their own community, no matter what they might have done. They melt back into their border villages, and sometimes cross the border to Spain.
The first victim's name was Imad Ibn Ziaten, 30 years old and of Moroccan origins. He had recently put an ad in the paper, to sell his car (or motorcycle? "moto" in French) and in that ad he had identified himself as a member of military, in Toulouse, and told callers to ask for "Imad". Anyone reading that ad could work out that this is an Arab member of the Parachute regiment. It is considered possible that he was lured out to meet a potential "buyer."
Done!
I thought of a possible Basque connection myself.
Very good detective work. “Moto” is French slang for motorcycle.
Let’s hope this gets solved soon.
Vendetta...you may be correct. But I suspect this is Islamist terror activity to discourage young Muslim men or young men of color from joining the French military.
Many thanks - and the killer rides a motorcycle. What a chilling case.
The weapon, an automatic pistol 11.43mm, is said by Sud-Ouest to be ‘found in the milieu of organized crime’. It is not an ordinary gun. The killer dropped the charger at the scene of the crime, but an inspection found no trace of DNA – the charger had been totally cleaned. All this seems to indicate some careful planning. Those guns certainly have a reputation.
Back in 2007, Le Figaro, commenting on an outbreak of violence by crime gangs in Grenoble, commented that the weapon was “an automatic pistol 11.43mm the ‘signature’ of a settling of scores.”
http://www.lefigaro.fr/france/20071102.FIG000000156_grenoble_s_enfonce_dans_la_guerre_des_gangs.html
But I think Basques might have them as well.
Indeed, indeed, wear dresses is what we want them to wear.
Liberal feminists are too incompetent and insecure to let any one of legit worth carry a gun. Many a leader out west would be in prison if it were not for nannization of the military.
What you say is quite possible, and I have been reading comments from the forum of the local newspaper. Some of the locals share your opinion.
That’s .45, presumably .45 ACP, AKA 11.43×23mm.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.45_ACP
I wouldn’t think that a particularly common caliber in France.
I visited Nice a couple years ago and happened across a small guns/weapons shop and went in, looked around, and chatted briefly with the proprietor. He really had very, very little on hand, and was very envious of our gun laws.
My memory is that the Legion and Paras could not wear camouflage inside of France since the early 1960s.
I saw camo BDU’s worn by military police, who were carrying assault rifles, walking the concourse at DeGaul airport in May 2001. The other military I saw in France were in greens and similarly equiped.
UPDATE:
from The Miami Herald:
Anti-terror police join probe into French shooting
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/15/2695486/3-french-soldiers-shot-dead-on.html
Thank you all for your input.
“organized crime circles”
“regalement des comptes”
All interesting hypotheses. The most frightening would be the teaming up of Mafia and terrorist elements to target members of the French military who have been stationed in Afghanistan.
Which “local paper” are you referring to?
Montauban and Toulouse are in the SW of France.
That would be the reason. The OAS and their attempted coup.
Thanks for those details, most informative. I believe that gun control is quite strict in France, although of course, those outside the law always manage to get weapons.
Le censeur de sud ouest est une merde astronomique.
A lot of posts appear then disappear. Lots of currents of opinion are running.
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