Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb's latest press release has claimed that the group killed nine French special force commandos from the General Directorate for External Security, or DGSE, during a joint Mauritanian-French raid on an AQIM camp in northern Mali. The raid was bold attempt to free a French national, Michel Germaneau. With the controversial aftermath of the raid and Michel Germaneau's subsequent execution, a propaganda war of details of the incident have ensued with AQIM asserting that 54 French commandos were involved in the assault, contradicting early reports of 20-30 French advisers with no reports of casualties. AQIM listed the names of the French commandos supposedly killed in the assault. The AQIM excerpt from Kavkaz Center, a known jihadist website:

A hour before the reported on execution of a Frenchman Mujahideen of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQMI, Al-Qaida au Maghreb islamique) circulated in the media a list of militants from the French punitive structure "the Directorate-General for External Security/Service Action (Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure / Service Action), destroyed by the Mujahideen when they attacked a military camp of Mujahideen in order to free Germaneau:

Cristopher LE BERRE -DGSE/SA
Lambert DELANNOY -DGSE/SA
Timothee AUBERT -DGSE/SA
Claude VINCENT -DGSE/SA
Benjamin ROUSSEL -DGSE/SA
Gaston PHILIPPON -DGSE/SA
Jean-Marcel ROCH -DGSE/SA
Youssef EL-ABBASI -DGSE/SA
Isidore DOUSSET -DGSE/SA

It is to be mentioned that, according to the Islamic media, at 3:46 dawn time on July 22 at 3:46, 54 soldiers belonging to the French special forces attacked a military base of the Mujahideen fighters in the Sahara desert on the border of Mali. They tried to free the French hostages.

Operation of French special forces failed miserably. The French did not manage to free any prisoner. During the attack 9 French soldier "were missing in action", i.e., were killed.