French President Nicolas Sarkozy has confirmed the death of a French hostage killed by suspected al-Qaeda militants in north-west Africa. Sarkozy condemned the killing of 78-year-old Michel Germaneau as “odious”, saying it would not go unpunished. The leader of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) had earlier said Mr Germaneau was killed in revenge for…
Al-Qaida has taken responsibility for the November kidnapping of a Frenchman and three Spaniards working for the Catalan organization Barcelona-Acciò Solidaria. They were seized in Mali and Mauritania by al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), an offshoot of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida. Claiming responsibility for the action via a video-tape, a spokesman announced that France…
Freed Canadian diplomats Robert Fowler and Louis Guay left Mali yesterday aboard a Canadian government plane bound for Germany this weekend to be reunited with their families. The two men were freed by their al-Qaeda-linked captors after four months of captivity. Two Europeans separately captured by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) were simultaneously let…
At a recent security conference in Munich, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told European nations that they were under direct threat from Islamist extremists and that this phenomenon would not go away. Gates tied European security to NATO success in Afghanistan. In fact, Western intelligence services have recently established operational links between al-Qaida in Afghanistan…
