Foreign troops launch Somali raid http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8254957.stmPage last updated at 14:56 GMT, Monday, 14 September 2009 15:56 UK
Foreign soldiers have staged an attack on militants in Somalia, killing at least two people in a helicopter raid.
The troops, who according to some reports had uniforms with French insignia, attacked a vehicle carrying Islamists from the al-Shabab group.
Witnesses said the troops took away two men, and there were two bodies left in the road after the attack in the southern coastal town of Barawe.
A French military spokesman denied its forces were involved.
"There was no French operation," said admiral Christophe Prazuck, spokesman for the armed forces' general staff.
He said the only French forces in the area were tackling pirates off the coast and did not intervene on land.
Witness Dahir Ahmed said that the helicopters had taken off from a nearby warship flying a French flag.
A village elder told the AFP news agency that four foreign helicopters were involved in the raid.
"We heard the explosion and saw two helicopters flying over us," said Mohamed Ali Aden, a bus driver who drove past the burnt-out car minutes after the attack.
"There was only a burning vehicle and two dead bodies lying beside."
Neither Somali government nor Islamist forces have helicopters.
French commandos have launched raids in the past to rescue their citizens from pirates or militants. There is a French military base in neighbouring Djibouti.
The assault comes several weeks after a French security adviser held by militants in Mogadishu managed to get free. A colleague seized at the same time remains in captivity.
The US has also carried out air strikes against Somali Islamist groups it accused of links to al-Qaeda in recent years.
Somalia has not had a functioning central government since 1991.
Rival Islamist factions are battling forces loyal to the weak UN-backed government, which controls only small parts of the capital Mogadishu.
Islamist extremists are battling government forces***********************************************************
Mmmh, on dirait qu'on se dirige lentement vers une solution un peu plus réaliste : attaquer le problème à sa racine. Les pirates ne vivant pas en mer mais sur terre, belle première attaque "on ne sait pas de qui ni d'où" et avec fruit. La France avait sécurisé la Méditérannée au 19ème siècle en pratiquant allègrement la politique de la canonière face aux bandits du Maghreb, dont là aussi les pouvoirs locaux n'avaient ni capacité ni même la volonté d'empêcher la piraterie navale. On dirait que la Somalie va goûter de cette recette. Enfin! Qu'on lance dix raids comme ça sur un mois, ciblant tel chef local et sa garde rapprochée, tel village particulièrement actif et nuisible, avec en finale un gros bouzouf bien humiliant où on montrerait aux habitants locaux que leurs rejetons ne sont pas des héros mais de la racaille bonne pour les requins, et ça les calmerait pour un bon bout de temps. Opinion perso' bien entendu.
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