The same day France launched air strikes against Islamist militants in Mali, an unrelated special forces operation in Somalia resulted in the death of one commando, as well as the hostage French forces were attempting to rescue. Denis Allex, a secret agent held since 2009, is thought to be dead.?
In June 2010, a man identified as French security agent Denis Allex pleads for his release from the Somali militant group al-Shabaab who had been holding him since 2009. A French commando raid in Somalia to free a captive intelligence agent ended in the deaths of 17 Islamists and a French soldier. France said the hostage also died in the failed rescue, but the man's captors denied he had been killed and claimed to have seized a second soldier.
AP/File
EnlargeFrance?sent special forces into?Somalia?to rescue a secret agent but insurgents apparently killed their hostage during the raid along with a commando, Defence Minister?Jean-Yves Le Drian?said on Saturday.
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The intelligence agency team flew into?southern Somalia?by helicopter under cover of darkness to try to free?Denis Allex, held since 2009, by al Qaeda-linked Al Shabaab, on the same day?France?launched air strikes against Islamist militants in?Mali.
"Commandos broke into where Allex was being detained last night and immediately faced strong resistance," Le Drian told a news conference.
"Intense combat took place, during which - and now I speak with caution - everything leads us to believe that?Denis Allex?was unfortunately killed by his captors."
Sowing confusion,?Al Shabaab?said in a statement that Allex was still alive.
Paris has been concerned that various French hostages held in?Africa?would be at risk if it intervened militarily against the al Qaeda-allied fighters in?Mali, but Le Drian said the?Somalia?raid was "totally unconnected" to the?Mali?operation.
The deaths in?Somalia?coincided with the killing of a pilot in air strikes in?Mali, however, striking a double blow to the start of a campaign that represents President Francois Hollande's biggest foreign policy test since his May election.
A French commando died from wounds sustained in the Somali raid and a second was missing, Le Drian said.
The defence ministry said earlier that 17 Somali fighters were killed in a mission prompted by "the intransigence of the terrorists, who refused to negotiate for three and half years".
Al Shabaab?said in a statement that Allex was alive and being held at a location far from the base where French military helicopters attacked overnight.
"The injured French soldier is now in the custody of the mujahideen and Allex still remains safe and far from the location of the battle," it said. "Several French soldiers were killed in the battle and many more were injured before they fled from the scene of battle, leaving behind some military paraphernalia and even one of their comrades on the ground."
When asked about whether the missing commando was now in the hands of?Al Shabaab,?French Army?chief Admiral?Edouard Guillaud?said: "If he is alive then he could be, but he could also be hiding."
France?has eight nationals in Islamist hands in the Sahel area after a string of kidnappings, and has cited concern over their safety as a reason for its initial reluctance to spearhead any military action against the Islamist rebels inMali.
A spokesman for Malian insurgents Ansar Dine said?France's intervention in the country will put French citizens at risk.
"There are consequences, not only for French hostages, but also for all French citizens wherever they find themselves in the Muslim world,"?Sanda Ould Boumama?told Reuters. "
A French military analyst,?Jean-Dominique Merchet, said he doubted the raid had been mounted in coordination with the?Mali?operation and it appeared to be a case of unfortunate timing.
"The?Mali?intervention was not planned, it was launched in two days, whereas the other raid had been in the works for a week or two. There is no reason for them to have been coordinated," he said.
PLEADING FOR LIFE
Allex was one of two officers from the DGSE intelligence agency kidnapped by?al Shabaab?in?Mogadishu?in July 2009. His colleague,?Marc Aubriere, escaped a month later but Allex had been held ever since in what Paris called "inhumane conditions".
The ministry said he was kidnapped while carrying out an aid mission with the?Somali government.?France?has previously said the two men were in the Somali capital to train local forces.
A video of Allex pleading with Hollande to negotiate his release and save his life appeared on a website in October used by Islamist militant groups around the world. Reuters could not verify its authenticity.
Hollande said at the time the government was seeking to start talks with any party able to facilitate Allex's release.
After his abduction,?al Shabaab?issued a series of demands, which included an end to French support for the Somali government and the withdrawal of?African Union?peacekeepers, whose 17,600-strong troops are helping battle the rebels.
Under pressure from the peacekeeping troops and Somali government forces,?al Shabaab?has lost many of its major urban strongholds in south-central Somalia?since it launched a rebellion against the Western-backed government in 2007.
The rebels, who want to impose their strict interpretation of sharia, or Islamic law, across the Horn of?Africa?state, withdrew from the capital?Mogadishu?in August last year and lost their last major?bastion of Kismayu?six weeks ago.
A Somali official in Bula Mareer, about 75 miles south of?Mogadishu, said French helicopters attacked overnight.
"Helicopters attacked?al Shabaab?at 2 a.m. this morning. Two civilians died in the crossfire,"?Ahmed Omar Mohamed, deputy chairman for lower Shabelle region, told Reuters.
An?al Shabaab?official who asked not to be named said they exchanged fire with French commandos. "Three helicopters dropped French commandos. We exchanged fire," the official told Reuters.
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