Hostages in Niger killed four kidnappers during the rescue attempt

We know a little about the circumstances of the attack by French forces Saturday, January 8 Mali to deliver two French hostages kidnapped the day before at a restaurant in Niamey, Niger. French helicopter gunships fired at the kidnappers' vehicles and their charred wreckage had been found in northern Mali.

The final assault allegedly took place at about fifteen kilometers from the Malian town Tabankor. "Among the recovered vehicles burned, there is a large 4 x 4 vehicle registered in Benin," said an administrative authority in northern Mali. In Niamey, witnesses the kidnapping, assigned to the North African branch of al-Qaida (AQIM), had said that two French nationals were taken January 7 at night by people "armed and turbaned", "on board a 4 x 4 registered in Benin.

" According to French officials, the lifeless bodies of two French hostages had been discovered after the attack. The French Prime Minister Francois Fillon had said they were "coldly eliminated" by their captors. Four kidnappers were killed during that operation, said two officials Tuesday, January 11 parliamentarians who attended the night before at a briefing at Matignon.

On RMC, MP PS Loncle Francis, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly, spoke of "four terrorists were killed and two who were wounded and are being treated at the hospital in Niamey. The group's president New Center in the Assembly, Francis Sauvadet, confirmed this assessment given the previous day by the Prime Minister, announcing "four kidnappers were killed and two seriously injured." He also spoke of "a prisoner".

A senior Nigerian security had ensured his side a little sooner than two suspected fighters from Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb had been captured during the raid by French troops on Saturday. They are currently detained and interrogated in Niamey. The body of Anthony and Vincent Léocour Delory, both aged 25, will be repatriated to France on Wednesday morning.

They will be autopsied at the Forensic Institute of Paris.

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• Paris opens probe into 2 hostage deaths in Niger (10/01/2011)
• Paris opens probe into 2 hostage deaths in Niger (10/01/2011)
• French hostage killed in Niger was to marry in a week: Mayor (09/01/2011)

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