Fransk pensionär halshuggen av islamister

Michel Germaneau, en 78-årig pensionerad

ingenjör som deltog i ett biståndsprojekt för

tuareger, rapporterades på måndagen ha hals-

huggits av Al Qaedas nordafrikanska gren.

Fransmannen Germaneau kidnappades i april

i norra Niger. President Sarkozy utlovar hämnd.

***

French President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed today

to seek revenge on the North African wing of

al-Qaida for beheading an elderly French aid

worker after a joint Franco-Mauritanian raid

to rescue him last week failed.
Michel Germaneau, 78, a retired engineer who

had been helping build a school for Tuareg

nomads, was kidnapped April 19 in northern

Niger. The area is in the volatile "Red Zone"

on the southern rim of the Sahara desert.
His captors told French officials on July 11

that they would kill him in two weeks unless

France agreed to a prisoner exchange.
"I condemn this barbarous act, this odious

act which has put an end to the life of an

innocent man who was there to help the

local population," Sarkozy said today in a

televised address.

"This crime committed against Michel

Germaneau will not go unpunished."
Sarkozy also warned French nationals not

to travel to the desolate desert region that

includes Mauritania, Mali, Niger and southern

Algeria. Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb

(AQIM) is an Islamic insurgent group that

aims to overthrow the Algerian government.

***

Ursprungsartikel
Källa: Jihad i Malmö (medlem)