Ivory Coast resort attack

[Duque de Bragança]

Is it starting to become banal? Not much talk here about it. Read on the Figaro that GIGN operatives (kind of SWAT but military status as gendarmes) is sent to Burkina Faso.


http://www.france24.com/en/20160315-live-brussels-french-belgium-police-raid-paris-attacks
News in Belgium too, a police operation ran into trouble and is not over yet.

Shots were fired Tuesday during a counter-terror raid by French and Belgian police in Brussels, slightly injuring three police officials. The police raid was linked to the November 13 Paris attacks, according to a senior French official.

The shootout occurred Tuesday afternoon in the Forest neighbourhood of Brussels, according to Belgian media reports.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said French police were participating in the raid in the Belgian capital. He also confirmed the counter-terror raid was linked to the Paris attacks.

Latest update : 2016-03-14
Four French nationals were among the 18 people killed in Sunday's attack on an Ivory Coast resort town, the French presidential office announced Monday. The assault was claimed by al Qaeda's North African branch.

French President François Hollande confirmed the death toll of French nationals in a statement released shortly after a telephone conversation with his Ivorian counterpart, Alassane Ouattara.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve are set to arrive in the Ivorian commercial capital of Abidjan Tuesday to "demonstrate France's solidarity" with Ivorian "initiatives against terrorism", the statement added.

RETURNING TO SCENE OF 'BLACK SUNDAY'

Sunday's attack targeting foreign nationals and foreign interests was the latest in a recent spate of assaults in West African nations to be claimed by al Qaeda's North African branch, AQIM (al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb). However Ivory Coast, the world's largest cocoa exporting nation with a burgeoning economy, had never been targeted by the Islamist group before.

In a message posted online earlier Monday, AQIM hailed the "martyrdom" of three "heroes" who stormed the Grand-Bassam resort, according to US-based SITE Intelligence Group.

The attack, which targeted three hotels popular among westerners about 40 km (25 miles) east of the commercial capital Abidjan, resulted in the deaths of 15 civilians and three special forces troops.

Speaking to reporters Monday following an emergency meeting, Ivorian Interior Minister Hamed Bakayoko said "three terrorists" had been killed, appearing to confirm the information in the AQIM statement.

Besides the French nationals, the victims of Sunday's attack included citizens from Germany, Burkina Faso, Mali and Cameroon. According to Bakayo, Ivorian authorities were in possession of a mobile phone they hoped would prove a valuable lead in finding those responsible for the attack.

Ouattara on Monday declared three days of national mourning.

>>> For more on the attack, read our coverage of the day's events.

'A war between AQIM and France'

"It was truly, truly, terrifying, it was indeed terrorists," witness Marie-Claire Yapi, who was separated from her nine-month old baby and her sister in the chaos, told FRANCE 24. "Someone said to me: 'Run, this is serious – they are killing everyone.' The people who were there told us that once these men started speaking in Arabic, at that moment they thought that it was terrorists."

'A WAR BETWEEN AQIM AND FRANCE'

Wassim Nasr, FRANCE 24's expert on jihadi movements, said that the attack should be considered part of the group's war against the West, especially France.

"We should look at this as a war between jihadi groups – especially al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb – and France," he said. "They target wherever they see French interests, or French or [other] Western citizens. They are trying to export their war to Western Africa. So I suspect that more attacks will happen in this region."

The deadly assault bore grim similarities to other recent attacks in West Africa. Barely two months ago, Islamists killed dozens of people in a hotel and café frequented by foreigners in neighbouring Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou. Gunmen also attacked a hotel in the Malian capital Bamako late last year.

Both of those attacks were also claimed by AQIM and raised concerns that militants were extending their reach far beyond their traditional zones of operation in the Sahara and the arid Sahel region.

International condemnation

As the scale of the tragedy become evident, regional and world leaders expressed their support for Ivory Coast, which has recently emerged from a decade of political turmoil and civil war to become one of the world's fastest growing economies.

AL QAEDA'S GROWING REACH IN WEST AFRICA

Hollande has denounced the shootings in the former French colony as a "cowardly attack".

"France will bring its logistical support and intelligence to Ivory Coast to find the attackers. It will pursue and intensify its cooperation with its partners in the fight against terrorism," he said in a statement.

President Macky Sall of Senegal, another country considered a likely target for AQIM, called upon West African countries to step up their cooperation against terrorism and violent extremism.

http://www.france24.com/en/20160314-ivory-coast-attack-four-french-nationals-qaeda-aqim

[Capetan Mihali]

GIGN = Navy Seals, perhaps?

[alfred russel]

I was recently in Nigeria for work. I planned to stay the weekend to check out Lagos (where I was). Some coworkers strongly encouraged me not to do that because of the security, and suggested spending the weekend on the beach in Cote d Ivoire or Accra in Ghana as safer options.

I stayed in Lagos, but I guess those might not have been better options after all.

[derspiess]

Lemme guess, Christian militants this time?

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Lemme guess, Christian militants this time?

Al-Quaida, so probably the dhimmi-brigades

[viper37]

GIGN = Navy Seals, perhaps?

About midway between Seals and SWAT:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Gendarmerie_Intervention_Group

[Duque de Bragança]

More news about the Brussels raid:

One suspect was killed in a Brussels raid Tuesday by Belgian police supported by their French counterparts. Four police officials were wounded in a gunfire exchange while two other suspects are believed to be still on the run.

One suspect was killed during a Belgian-French counter-terror raid in the Forest neighbourhood of Brussels.
Two other suspects are believed to be still on the run.
Police encountered heavy gunfire Tuesday afternoon when the raid in the multicultural neighbourhood of Brussels began. Four police officials were wounded, according to Belgian officials.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve confirmed that French police were also involved in the raid and that it was linked to the November 13 Paris attacks.
Belgian prosecutors have denied reports that the subject of the raid was Saleh Abdeslam, a key Paris attacks suspect.

Suspect killed had a kalashnikov rifle, according to French media.