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Al Qaeda silent on French hostages in Mali
[FRANCE24] For several months last year, as France was leading international diplomatic efforts for an intervention in Mali, al Qaeda's North African branch warned that a military operation would "provoke" the executions of French hostages in the region.

In a statement released in September 2012, AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) threatened that, "These crazy initiatives [for a Malian intervention] will not only lead to the deaths of the hostages, but it will drown the whole of France in the marches of Azawad."

Azawad refers to the region of northern Mali that fell to a motley mix of rebel groups following a Malian military coup in March 2012.

But since the French offensive to liberate northern Mali began on January 11, there has been an uncharacteristic AQIM silence on the fates of the French hostages.

Seven French nationals are currently being held in the Sahel, the inhospitable southern belt of the Sahara desert. Four hostages were abducted in a uranium mining town in Niger in September 2010. Two others were kidnapped in the central Malian town of Hombori in November 2011. A year later, on November 20, 2012, another French national was abducted near the southwestern Malian town of Nioro by MUJAO (Movement for Unity and Oneness of the Jihad), an AQIM splinter group that sprang up last year in northern Mali.

On Thursday, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said it was "likely" that the hostages were being held in the Ifoghas massif region, a remote rock-strewn area of northern Mali near the Algerian border.

In an interview with French radio station France-Inter, Le Drian added that, "We never lose sight or mind of the fact that there are French hostages in this territory."

'They're more useful as human shields'

On January 20 -- nine days after the launch of the Malian intervention -- French officials, who tend to be tight-lipped about hostage issues, revealed that the hostages were "alive".

In the pre-intervention days, there were some fears that the hostages could be executed in retaliation for a military operation. But that assessment appears to have changed since the French military intervention in Mali began.

"The various jihadist groups have no interest in executing them," said Philippe Hugon, Africa research director at the Paris-based IRIS (Institut de Relations Internationales et Strategiques). "They're more useful as human shields."
Posted by: Fred 2013-02-02
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=361417