Al-Qaeda admits role in abducting French citizens

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) admitted that it kidnapped the two Frenchmen who were subsequently killed during a botched rescue attempt.

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The terrorists abducted French citizens Antoine de Leocour and Vincent Delory in Niger. In an audio message sent to Reuters news agency and broadcast on the television channel al-Jazeera, the radical Islamic group boasted that a group of mujahideen carried out a brave operation on January 7 in the heart of the Niger capital Niamey. The terrorists said they broke into the secured diplomatic neighborhood and succeeded in kidnapping the two Frenchmen from Niamey. "Two battles took place between the mujahideen and French-Niger forces, resulting in a major failure in the attempt to rescue the hostages," it added. De Leocour and Delory had been abducted from a bar, bringing the number French people snatched in Niger since last April to eight. However, this was the first such kidnapping to occur in the capital Niamey, far from the rural areas where Islamic terrorists, political rebels, and criminal gangs lurk. However, during the audio message, al-Qaeda failed to describe the way the two hostages died in last Saturday’s incident. French government officials reportedly already suspected al-Qaeda’s involvement in the abduction and also claimed that the terrorists must have executed the two men. The remains of Antoine de Leocour and Vincent Delory arrived in France on Wednesday and the autopsy report showed that one of the hostages died from burns and while the other appeared to have been shot point-blank in his face. French officials are said to be angry with Niger's government claiming it was secretly interrogating two captured al-Qaeda suspects in the case, but they failed to notify French officials of the captures and interrogations. Niamey’s Interior Minister Ousmane Cisse declined to comment when reporters asked about the rift between the two countries. Minister Cisse had told a French radio news team that his government was not questioning any terrorists after the incident, which killed six people, including the two hostages, and injured two members of Niger's security service. French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said he was certain that al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb was behind the abduction of his two countrymen and that they brutally murdered them. The pair were found dead, apparently killed by their kidnappers, after French special forces joined a failed attempt to rescue them in the African state on Saturday. The bodies were charred, with their hands tied behind their backs, according to sources speaking to reporters covering the story.