Sirpa Marine/Reuters
- Two French commandos were killed during a night operation to rescue two hostages in the west African country of Burkina Faso on Friday.
- The two petty officers, Cédric de Pierrepont, 32, and Alain Bertoncello, 27, were confirmed to have died in the operation, according to the French Navy.
- Here’s how the operation unfolded.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Two Frenchmen, one American, and one South Korean were abducted and taken to Burkina Faso, in West Africa.
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French citizens Patrick Picque and Laurent Lassimouillas, both of them tourists, were visiting a wildlife preserve in Benin when they were abducted on May 1.
Their tour guide was fatally shot and their car was burned.
The South Korean and American hostages, both of them women, were held for 28 days. The US State Department did not release the American hostage’s name due to privacy concerns but said she was in her 60s.
The French Foreign Ministry previously issued a travel guidance in the region.
It was unclear who the captors were, but terror organizations, like the Islamic State, have operated in the area.
Theo Renaut/AP
The captors were believed to be handing the hostages off to an al-Qaeda group in Mali. The French Gen. François Lecointre told reporters it would have been "absolutely impossible" to successfully conduct a rescue operation under those circumstances.
Around 4,500 French troops are deployed to the region after the country set out to eliminate ISIS activity in Mali in 2013. Twenty-six French troops have been killed since the conflict.
Source: Reuters, The New York Times, France 24
The raid relied on intelligence from the US and France.
Francois Mori/AP
The original objective was to rescue the two French hostages.
French Defense Minister Florence Parly said that neither South Korea nor the US were "necessarily aware" of the abduction of their citizens, according to Reuters.
French officials, who were tracking the kidnappers, decided to strike after they set up a temporary camp.
"France’s message is clear. It’s a message addressed to terorists," Parly said after the raid, according to Reuters. "Those who want to target France, French citizens know that we will find track them, we will find them, and we will neutralize them."
Source: Vox
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Source: Business Insider – dchoi@businessinsider.com (David Choi)