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Benito
07-07-15, 23:04
This is how you do it.
Meanwhile the 5 Taliban hotshots "we" let go of, in exchange for a photo op with a deserter/traitor/Islamic convert father and son duo, are roaming free and back to their old ways.

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2015/07/french-special-forces-kill-aqim-fighter-who-had-been-exchanged-for-hostage.php


French special forces kill AQIM fighter who had been exchanged for hostage

BY CALEB WEISS | July 7, 2015 | weiss.caleb2@gmail.com | @Weissenberg7
Mohamed_Ali_Ag_Wadouss__ne_844306422

Photograph of Mohamad Ali Ag Wadossene that is being circulated online by jihadist accounts

An al Qaeda fighter who had been released in exchange for former French hostage Serge Lazarevic was killed by French special forces during a raid in the Kidal region of northern Mali yesterday. Mohamad Ali Ag Wadossene, a member of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), al Qaeda’s official branch in North Africa, had previously been captured by French forces in Mali sometime last year.

The Associated Press reported that yesterday’s operation occurred in the Tigharghar mountains in the northern Kidal region. A Malian military official stated that a dozen other AQIM fighters were also captured in the assault.

The French Ministry of Defense has released a statement saying “two terrorists were captured,” along with the killing of Wadossene.

French special forces also killed two al Qaeda leaders, Hamada Ag Hama and Ibrahim Ag Inawalen, in a nighttime raid in northern Mali in May. Hama, who also went by Abdul Karim al Tuareg, was the leader of AQIM’s Katibat al Ansar. He was responsible for taking several French hostages in the North African country, according to RFI. Inawalen was a leader in Ansar Dine, a jihadist group within al Qaeda’s network in Mali. [See LWJ report, French forces kill two al Qaeda leaders in Mali.]

Wadossene, along with three others, had been released by the Malian government in exchange for the release of Lazarevic late last year. Lazarevic was seized in 2011 in Mali by jihadists affiliated to AQIM. He was kidnapped along with another French national, Philippe Verdon, who was killed by AQIM in 2013. Wadossene assisted in their capture, according to RFI.

However, a jihadist in a recent AQIM video claimed that seven of the jihadist group’s fighters were released in the exchange, including two that were involved in the kidnapping of Lazarevic. The same video shows Swedish hostage Johan Gustofsson and South African hostage Stephen McGowan pleading to their respective governments for their release. McGowan and Gustofsson were kidnapped in Timbuktu in 2011, at the same time as Dutch citizen Sjaak Rijke.

Rijke appeared in an AQIM video released in November alongside Lazarevic, in which both appealed to their respective governments for their release. Rijke was freed in April after a French raid on AQIM militants in northern Mali. According to the BBC, his presence caught the French special operators by surprise; it was only after the fighting was over that they realized the militants were holding the Dutch hostage. [See LWJ reports, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb video features French, Dutch hostages and French forces free Dutch hostage in Mali.]

AQIM has a history of taking Western hostages for propaganda purposes and as a source of revenue. In 2010, Michel Germaneau, a French hostage held by AQIM, died while in captivity. And in 2013, four French hostages were released by AQIM after being held for three years; it is speculated that a ransom of 20 million Euros was paid to free them. France officially denies paying any ransoms for these individuals or for Lazarevic.

AQIM was also responsible for the kidnapping of Spanish nationals in Mauritania and an Italian and French national in Mali in 2009, as well as many more abductions throughout North Africa. The al Qaeda branch’s prolific kidnappings have even led senior al Qaeda leaders to tighten their control over hostage-taking, possibly to better coordinate these types of operations.

In November 2010, AQIM emir Abdelmalek Droukdel said that France would have to negotiate with Osama bin Laden himself to secure the release of several French hostages. [See LWJ report, Analysis: Al Qaeda central tightened control over hostage operations.]

SteyrAUG
07-07-15, 23:51
Pretty sad when the French are the ones who know how to fight terrorism.

Benito
07-08-15, 01:27
Don't underestimate the Frenchies.
Just like the West, they have a segment of their society that has not stopped putting boot to ass since their days of empire.
They have a caviar socialist crowd, just like we have an ivory tower socialist crowd. There are warriors there as well that keep the rest of the leeches from being beheaded and paraded in the streets as spoils of war.

Sensei
07-08-15, 02:35
Don't underestimate the Frenchies.
Just like the West, they have a segment of their society that has not stopped putting boot to ass since their days of empire.
They have a caviar socialist crowd, just like we have an ivory tower socialist crowd. There are warriors there as well that keep the rest of the leeches from being beheaded and paraded in the streets as spoils of war.

This is true. I served with a number of French at Camp Phoenix in 2009. Good group of guys (and a couple of gals).

SkiDevil
07-08-15, 02:45
Yeah, the French helped us out once upon a time.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/France_in_the_American_Revolutionary_War

WillBrink
07-08-15, 06:52
Yeah, the French helped us out once upon a time.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/France_in_the_American_Revolutionary_War

I'd say we paid that debt back in full with interest, in blood.

soulezoo
07-08-15, 09:27
I'd go so far as to say we are on the other side of that ledger now.

The French suffer from some of the same issues as the US. Most of them are civilian-political in nature and not grounded necessarily in military competency in and of itself.

Let's not forget, France in terms of land mass is just a tad smaller than Texas... with a population roughly one fifth of ours.

usmcvet
07-08-15, 10:24
Yeah, the French helped us out once upon a time.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/France_in_the_American_Revolutionary_War

They sure did. My son is 12 and his favorite show is Turn. It was a good way to get into history with him. He now understands some of our friends were bitter enemies at one time.

WickedWillis
07-08-15, 11:31
Pretty sad when the French are the ones who know how to fight terrorism.

They don't hold any oil, the government doesn't care.

Singlestack Wonder
07-08-15, 13:14
A joke: During the Revolutionary War when a British officer was captured by the French, the French interrogators asked why British officers wore red coats. He replied, "So that when we are shot, our troops will not see the blood and continue fighting". Ever since then French officers and troops have worn brown pants.....

At least the French are showing more backbone today than our president....

Cincinnatus
07-08-15, 14:19
A joke: During the Revolutionary War when a British officer was captured by the French, the French interrogators asked why British officers wore red coats. He replied, "So that when we are shot, our troops will not see the blood and continue fighting". Ever since then French officers and troops have worn brown pants.....

At least the French are showing more backbone today than our president....

That's a funny joke. I like it.
Yet, the reputation the French have as frog-eating surrender monkeys is of chiefly post WWI origin. For most of the 19th century and even prior, Germans were thought of as poets and thinkers, whereas French were seen as all things martial. Most military manuals were written in French; the greatest soldier of the age, Napoleon, led the French. At the time of the American Civil War, to study German military thought was thought laughable, and almost all American officers, who studied any manuals or military thought at all, studied the French. It was the French that most of Europe was afraid of and most Europeans made alliances against.
Napoleon and his legacy was what defined most military thought in the 19th century: Jomini, and even Clausewitz, developed their thought while studying Napoleon and the Napoleonic Wars. It was not until the Prussians united Germany and began whipping up on the French in the Franco-Prussian War, 1870-71, under a genius named Moltke, that this began to change.
However, even in WWI, at least in 1914-1916, the French soldiers were some of the bravest and most gung-ho of any soldiers in history. To see what I mean, look up the theories of Ardant du Picq; he personified the same kind of absolute fearless, charge-into-battle, gut-eating detrmination that the Japanese did in the Russo-Japanese War, and in the Pacific.

weggy
07-08-15, 19:31
I do believe the French Underground saved the lives of a good number of Allied pilots during WWll! Very brave people they knew they were dead if they were caught!

Benito
07-08-15, 19:36
At least the French are showing more backbone today than our president....

Don't be too hard on the Pres. He shows plenty of backbone when it comes to sticking it to gun owners (pushing gun control at every turn), people who support the Constitution (targeting them with IRS audits), veterans (VA), our allies (undermining them by arming and funding the Muslim Brotherhood), and the Constitution (using it as toilet paper).

Benito
07-09-15, 00:52
I somehow forgot the crowning achievement of his backbone, that he absolutely will not compromise no matter what. Shutting down criticism of Islam. From proclaiming that "the future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam", to justifying the evils of ISIS by asserting that they have "legitimate economic grievances", to covering up Benghazi and blaming it on a Youtube film.
Say what you will, but this is a man of firm convictions.