AQIM claims to have killed 9 French commandos in raid

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 g

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1 Comment

  • Indy says:

    LOL !
    5 outdated French first names (not used since the 20ies). 1 arab for a mission in an Arabic country : that definitely looks like a fake !

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