Shabaab say they have executed French hostage
2013-01-17 14:00
Nairobi - Somalia's Shabaab Islamists said on Thursday they
have executed a French agent they have held since 2009, as France said the
hostage was likely killed several days ago in a failed rescue attempt.
"16:30 GMT, Wednesday, 16 January, 2013. Denis Allex is
executed," the group said on its Twitter feed on Thursday, with the report
confirmed by a senior Shabaab official who said the group might release audio
and video of the "execution".
"Audio and video are available and will be released any
time we decide," he told AFP, saying the hostage, whose name is likely a
pseudonym, was killed in Bulomarer, a town south of Mogadishu still under Shabaab
control.
French commandos on Saturday launched a raid on the town to
free the hostage, but the bid failed and resulted in the death of two French
soldiers.
The al-Qaeda linked Shabaab said on Wednesday they had
"reached a unanimous decision to execute" their hostage in order to
avenge "the dozens of Muslim civilians senselessly killed by the French
forces during the operation".
Witnesses said eight civilians died during the raid to free
Allex.
The group also cited "France's increasing persecution
of Muslims around the world, its oppressive anti-Islam policies at home, French
military operations in ... Afghanistan and, most recently, in Mali."
The French army on Wednesday accused the Shebab of
"manipulating the media" and reaffirmed that Allex was likely already
dead.
"We suspect, and I believe that we are not wrong to do
so, that Somalia's Shebab are manipulating the media," France's Chief of
Defence Staff Admiral Edouard Guillaud said on Europe 1 radio.
"We have no element since the raid indicating Denis
Allex is alive. We think he is most likely dead," he said.
