Mali/France/Terrorism: Al-Qaeda extends deadline for French hostage

(Rossi Xavier/Gamma/Photo News)

French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner stated on Monday that Al-Qaeda's North African wing, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), had extended the deadline for the life of a French hostage it is holding since November.

“The deadline has been pushed back”, Kouchner said in comments broadcast by France's RFI on Monday. he added that “Mali is responsible” but that France nonetheless was doing what it could to help rescue Pierre Camatte.

Camatte, 61, was kidnapped from his hotel in northern-eastern Mali on the night of November 25 last year. He is believed to be held by Al-Qaeda-linked groups operating in the remote desert regions of southern Algeria and northern Mali and Mauritania. Three Spaniards and two Italians have also been kidnapped in the region last year and are also thought to be held by AQIM.

Last month, AQIM declared that France and Mali would be “responsible” for the life of Pierre Camatte, if four Islamist prisoners were not released by January 30. Earlier last year, AQIM had already executed British hostage Edwin Dyer in Mali, after extending an ultimatum by 15 days, blaming Britain for failing to release a radical Muslim cleric in exchange.

France/Civil Unrest: "Islamist commando" threatens imam

On Monday night, an "Islamist commando" broke into a mosque in Drancy, near Paris and threatened the imam, Hassen Chalghoumi. According to reports, Chalghoumi is known to maintain good relations with the Jewish community.

An aid to the imam declared that around 80 people entered the mosque while about 200 people were inside. Upon entering the building, they started issues threats towards the imam, calling him an “"infidel", an "apostate" and the "Jews imam". The same source added that the group has been identified as being a proxy of the Muslim Brotherhood.

France/Mali/Terrorism: French interests threatened due to media reports

According to the Algerian press, France has recently shipped weapons and military supplies to Mauritania and Mali to support their fight against Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). It added that Paris and Madrid had decided to form about 600 military and intelligence officers from these countries to counterterrorist techniques. 

The reports haven’t been officially confirmed, but it could threaten the live of the 6 European hostages still held by AQIM in Mali: French citizen Pierre Camatte; the 3 Spanish aid workers, Albert Vilalta, Alicia Gamez and Roque Pascual, who have been kidnapped Sunday November, 29 and an the 2 Italian nationals Sergio Cicala and Philomène Kabouree, who have been  kidnapped in the same country on Friday December, 18.

Moreover, the increased support by France, Spain and the United Stated could prompt AQIM to take retaliatory actions against western interests in North Africa in the near future.

Spain/France/Terrorism: two ETA members remain in jail

According to judicial sources, Iñaki Iribarren Galbete (photo) and Eider Uruburu Zabaleta, two ETA members who were arrested Saturday in the proximity of Clermot Ferrand, were indicted for terrorism and the illegal possession of arms and jailed yesterday.

The Spanish ministry of interior said that Galbete and Zabaleta were members of ETA’s “military logistics unit”.

Last Saturday Portuguese police detained Iratxe Yáñez Ortiz de Barrón, one of the most wanted ETA figures, with several false documents, electronic devices and a sum of 10,000€ in his car. On the same day, Garikoitz García Arrieta, also an ETA-member was arrested by the Spanish police. Bomb making materials, 10 kilograms of explosives, two firearms, false plates and false documents were found in his van.

Another French casualty in north-eastern Parwan province

A French petty officer has been killed by an Improvised Explosive Devise (IED) on Wednesday in Afghanistan’s north-eastern Parwan province. The IED went off on a road between Nijrab and Bagram when a logistics convoy of the Afghan army, accompanied by French soldiers, drove by.

This is the third French casualty in three days time. An officer and a petty officers belonging to the 1st Mechanised Brigade and to the 402nd artillery regiment from Châlons-en-Champagne had already been killed on Monday when Taleban insurgents attacked their patrol in the Alasay valley, north-east of Kabul. The total number of French soldiers killed in Afghanistan since 2001 has now risen to 39.

France/Terrorism: Three new arrest in Corsican terrorism plot 

On Tuesday, three persons suspected of perpetrating acts of terrorism have been detained in Borgo in the Haute-Corse department of Corsica. According to police sources, this brings the total arrests of suspected terrorists to ten. Two men were questionned by police, while the third wanted person gave himself up to the Borgo police. The ten remain under custody in the Borgo police station, some 15 kilometre of Bastia. Meanwhile, police are conducting a search and seizure on their property.

The investigation follows the July bomb-attack on the police station in Vescovato, also in the Haute-Corse department. The attack was claimed by two masked men, stating they were members of the National Liberation Front of Corsica (FLNC) in August. According to police reports, some 50 supporters of the arrested men assembled in front of the Borgo police station. The protestors rebutted the government's efforts to "crush the political efforts of the Corsica Libera party", two months prior to the regional elections.

France/Afghanistan/Insecurity: French soldier succumbs of wounds

The French soldier who was severely injured yesterday in an attack against his patrol in Afghanistan has died, the French Ministry of Defence said. The captain, belonging to the 1st Mechanised Brigade from Châlons-en-Champagne, died early on Tuesday at the Bagram military hospital in Afghanistan.

This is the second French soldier that dies after one French soldier was killed yesterday in the Alasay valley northeast of Kabul. The total number of French military casualties in Afghanistan now has risen to 38 since 2001.

Mali/Insurgency: Al-Qaeda sets deadline for French hostage's life

The US monitoring group SITE reported on Monday that Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has announced it will execute French hostage Pierre Camatte unless four of its members are freed from jail in Mali in 20 days. “The group gave the French and Malian governments a period of 20 days to release four AQIM prisoners from Mali, else Pierre Camatte will be executed,” SITE reported.

Last month, AQIM claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of Frenchman Pierre Camatte, who, on November 25 last year, was snatched from Menaka in the Sahel region of northern Mali. The group also claimed the kidnapping of three Spaniards in a region which is plagued by Tuareg rebels, Al-Qaeda terrorists and traffickers.

"We call upon the French public and the family of the kidnapped to put pressure on the Sarkozy government and to prevent it from committing the stupidity which was committed by Gordon Brown against its British citizen," the group said, referring to the killing by AQIM of British hostage Edwin Dyer on May 31 2009, who was kidnapped on the border between Mali and Niger in late January of the same year.

One French and three American soldiers killed

A French petty officer has been killed and one other officer seriously injured on Monday when Taleban insurgents attacked their patrol in the Alasay valley, north-east of Kabul.

The French presidency said in a statement that the targeted soldiers belonged to the 1st Mechanised Brigade and to the 402nd artillery regiment from Châlons-en-Champagne. The attack brings the total number of French soldiers killed in Afghanistan since 2001 to 37.

Meanwhile, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan announced that 3 U.S. soldiers had been killed on Monday afternoon during an engagement with "enemy forces" in southern Afghanistan. The exact location and circumstances of the incident haven’t’ been disclosed by the ISAF so far.

Two French journalists kidnapped; CIA Chief confirms 7 officers killed in attack 

(Jay L. Clendenin/Polaris/Photo News)

It was confirmed tonight in Paris that two French journalists working for the public TV channel France 3 were kidnapped yesterday. They were on duty in the Kapisa province (120 KM North-East of Kabul) with three Afghan collaborators.  

 CIA chief Leon Panetta confirmed that seven CIA officers were killed Wednesday  in the Khost province when a man apparently belonging to the Afghan National Army (ANA) detonated an explosive vest while entering the a secret facility,  Forward Operating Base  Chapman.

 

A woman, mother of three who was the chief of the base is among the dead. Six other CIA officers where wounded in the attack.  

It is not the first time an ANA member turns against coalition members which raised serious questions about the level of penetration of the Afghan army by the Taliban.  

France/Iran/Security: incident into the Iranian embassy

According to the French media this thursday, supporters of the opposition « Green movement » clashed on Wednesday with members of the the Iranian community in France during a ceremony organized for the Muharram month. The incident occured into an annex of the Iranian embassy located in Neuilly-sur-Seine, in Paris. A source close to the case who requested not to be named said that “a dozen opponents of the Iranian regime wearing green scarves and armbands broke into the premises, where a hundred people were gathered.” Reportedly, 4 girls could also have been arrested by the embassy’s security service.

France/Incident: the mosque of Castres has been vandalized
 
The Bilal mosque in the city of Castres in the Tarn region (south of France) has been defiled during the night of Saturday to Sunday by unidentified men who drew on the wall a swastika and wrote Nazi slogans. According to Abdelmalek Bouregba, the president of the Islamic association of Castres, they also wrote on the wall “France to French” and “white power”. Pigs' feet have been suspended from the handle of the gate, he underlined, adding posters with French flags were put up on the walls.

Marcelle Pierrot, the prefect of the region said “these reprehensible acts of desecration (are) contrary to the values of our secular republic which allows everyone to exercise his faith in the rules and values of our democracy”. French interior minister Brice Hortefeux, said for his part that "racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism had no place in France".

The current Bilal mosque may welcome 250 persons but it can’t allow all the faithful to gather into the building. Consequently, women and other worshipper are welcomed into a nearby room. The construction of a new mosque with a “prayer room of 800 square meters” has been planned for opening by 3 years. It could welcome at least 600 worshipers but “no minaret has been anticipated,” also noted Abdelmalek Bouregba.

Iran/United States/France/Russia/Security: Tehran may face new UN sanctions

(Kevin Dietsch/Upi/Photo News)

The United States, Britain and France warned Iran on Thursday that it may face new sanctions over its nuclear program. “If it continues to refuse the slightest confidence measures, to refuse dialogue, transparency ... we must draw all of the necessary conclusions and that means that we must move on to a new resolution involving sanctions,” French U.N. Ambassador Gerard Araud told the council during a UN Security Council debate over over Tehran's failure to engage in talks on its nuclear ambitions. “There is no longer any reason to wait,” he said. “We make a last call to the Islamic Republic of Iran to respond to our offer of negotiation,” Araud said. “If Iran doesn't do it on the short term, France will propose a new resolution of sanctions.”

United States Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday that he expects “significant” new sanctions to be imposed on Iran over its controversial nuclear program. “I think that you are going to see some significant additional sanctions imposed by the international community, assuming that the Iranians don't change course and agree to do the things they agreed to at the beginning of October,” Gates told a group of US soldiers in Kirkuk, Iraq. “Iran is stiffing the international community on some of the proposals that they agreed to at the beginning of October,” he said. “That has brought the international community, including the Russians and the Chinese, together in a way they haven't been.” On the other hand, Russia and China, however, hinted that they were not convinced more punitive steps were needed.

“This language of sanctions, it is not our language. It has already been said many times,” Russia's Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko told reporters in Moscow, stressing that Moscow's position had not changed. He said Moscow favoured “using political and diplomatic methods to resolve all emerging problems.”

In a separate development on Wednesday, Iran’s Defense Minister Brig.-Gen. Ahmad Vahidi Wednesday threatened to target Israel’s nuclear and chemical sites “should the Zionist forces pose any threat against Iran.” The Islamic Republic News Agency reported Vahidi as saying that Iran “will never hesitate to target Israel’s nuclear sites and centers for proliferation of chemical, biochemical, as well as dirty and prohibited weapons.”

France/Kidnapping: French foreign Minister says 7 French are taken hostage

(Rossi Xavier/Gamma/Photo News)

The French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner has announced this Wednesday that 7 French nationals are currently being detained hostage all over the world. “There have been currently 7 Frenchmen kidnapped” he said to the radio France Info, adding a “crisis cell is working day and night” to free the hostages. However, he refused to give additional details about the case, including about the French kidnapped in Chad and Central Africa. He concluded saying for "some of these aid workers, the NGO are negotiating themselves, but we are with them constantly."

An employee of the French International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been abducted three weeks ago in eastern Chad, near the Darfur region. Two other French aid workers of the Triangle GH NGO have also been kidnapped a week ago in Birao in the Central Africa Republic. Finally, a member of the General Directorate for External Security (DGSE, the French intelligence service) has been detained in Somalia since July 14.

A French kidnapped in Menaka

Officials in Mali have announced this Thursday that unidentified gunmen have kidnapped late on Wednesday a French national near the city of Menaka, in the north of the country. “He was kidnapped by mean who wore turbans,” said a city advisor. Another source close to the government confirmed the abduction but it asked to remain anonymous because it was not authorized to speak.

No additional details about the identity of the Frenchman have been given and no group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping so far.

Nigeria/France/Security: Abuja buys 5 French helicopters for oil delta

Nigeria's Information Minister Dora Akunyili announced on Wednesday that Abuja has agreed to purchase five used Super Puma helicopters from France to assist security forces in the oil-producing Niger Delta and on foreign peacekeeping missions. Nigeria's cabinet approved the defence ministry's request to purchase the five helicopters from France for 68.675 million euros. "The five Super Puma helicopters will be deployed in the areas of air support for Nigerian troops in peacekeeping operations as well as air support for surveillance and reconnaissance in the Niger Delta," Akunyili said.

Militants have waged a violent campaign in the oil-rich Niger Delta for more than three years, saying they are fighting for greater share of oil wealth for their communities. However, strikes against oil facilities have gone down after thousands of former gunmen disarmed and accepted President Umaru Yar'Adua's amnesty offer, which expired in early October. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), the main militant group behind attacks on the oil industry in recent years, has called for a demilitarisation of the region as the next step but has accused the military of instead rearming.

France/Terrorism: Al-Qaeda suspect targeted ski commandos

Adlene Hicheur, the 32-year-old French nuclear engineer who was arrested on suspicion of having links with Al-Qaeda planned to attack an elite unit of mountain troops training for Afghanistan. "The 27th 'Chasseurs Alpins' Brigade, was one of the potential targets," an investigator said on condition of anonymity and confirming a report in the newspaper Le Dauphine Libere. Reportedly, Hicheur had worked on the Large Hadron Collider — the world's largest atom smasher — as well as at a technology institute in neighboring Switzerland before he was taken into custody at his home in Vienne, France, on October 8.

The Chasseurs Alpins (Alpine Hunters) are a light infantry unit that trains for operations in snow and at high altitude. Three companies from the brigade were deployed in Afghanistan last year. The unit is based in the French Alpine town of Annecy, a short drive from Geneva where Adlene Hicheur worked at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN).

CERN has confirmed that Hicheur was contracted to an outside institute that used the Large Hadron Collider, but added that "his work did not bring him into contact with anything that could be used for terrorism". Hicheur remains in French custody awaiting trial on a charge of associating with a terrorist group. Investigators alleged he had exchanged messages over the Internet with Al-Qaeda's North African offshoot.

Central Africa Republic/Kidnapping: 2 French aid workers kidnapped in Birao

Mahamat Salah Amadou, deputy-consul of the Central Africa Republic in Darfur has announced this Monday two French aid workers of the NGO Triangle had been kidnapped late on Sunday in the city of Birao. “They have kidnapped two men, two Frenchmen of Triangle at 22h00 (local time). They were about twenty and spoke Arabic. They fled in the direction of Sudan,” he said.  "They also tried to kidnap a midwife (from the NGO) Medical Assistance Committee (CAM) but God was with her and they gave up. They also took three cars and a motorcycle to the NGOs,” he added.

On November 9 and October 22, two aid workers of the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) had been kidnapped in the same conditions in Chad and in Sudan. Birao is actually located near the Border between Central Africa, Chad and Sudan. The area is normally under the protection of the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad.

France/Crime: a Corsican offender victim of gangland killing

Jacques Butafoghi, a Corsican offender well known by the police has been shot dead late on Thursday in the town of Callenzana (in High-Corsica) by unidentified gunmen as he was driving a car. The police said the car was riddled with bullets from hunting and automatic weapons, showing how the attack was violent.

Deemed extremely dangerous by the police, Jacques Butafoghi had already been convicted of armed robbery. Arrested in 2007 and 2008, he was suspected to be involved in money laundering within the Parisian circle games, The Concorde. Indicted in this case, it was under judicial review.

According to a first investigation, the murder could be a gangland killing. The victime was found in his car, with a gun in his hand. The island faced indeed an increasing crime activity, bringing to at least 20 killing involving gangs.

A man opens fire in Paris injuring 3 people

An unknown gunman opened fire with an automatic gun this Friday in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, near the north station. Three people in a car have been injured including two siriously. Police has opened an investigation but the motives of the attack are not clear yet.