Expired Guarantees -- Richard Fernandez, Belmont Club
News sources report that Islamist fighters knew a French rescue team was coming for an intelligence agent being held prisoner in a southern Somali town. “Sources in lawless Somalia suggested the reason Saturday’s raid had failed was that the al-Qaeda-linked Shebab group holding the hostage had received advance warning.” Reports suggested that the team had been detected on arrival by civilians and further implied that civilians may have been killed by the attacking team as they approached the target area.
French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said one French soldier had died and another had gone missing during the raid, adding that 17 guerrillas had been killed.
He said “all indications” pointed to the conclusion that the hostage, a French intelligence agent with the alias of Denis Allex, had been killed by his captors.
The Shebab denied Allex was dead, but said they would decide his fate within two days. They also claimed they had captured a wounded member of the French assault team.
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My Comment: Richard Fernandez analysis is probably right. I also suspect that the French launched the failed rescue mission because they thought the French hostage might be killed in retaliation for the Mali operation against al Qaeda.
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