French commandoes on Saturday attacked a base of Islamist militants in Somalia in a hostage rescue attempt, a Somali intelligence official said. Residents of the town said they heard explosions and gunfire.
Meanwhile, the French Defence Ministry said the captors of a French military agent killed him during the raid in Somalia. The ministry said 17 militants and two French commandos also died in the fighting.
Gen. Martin Klotz, a spokesman for the ministry, declined to provide details of the overnight operation aimed at rescuing fellow DGSE spy service agent Denis Allex the code-name for the agent who had been held hostage in Somalia since 2009.
Allex was kidnapped from a hotel in Mogadishu on July 14, 2009 with a colleague who later escaped. They were in Somalia to train government forces, which are fighting militants.
The attack occurred in the town of Bulomarer, and comes on the heels of >French military intervention in Mali, another African country.
