A ground-to-air missile was fired at a French reconnaissance plane in eastern Chad Monday but missed its target, French military sources said Tuesday. "An aircraft's sensors detected a missile being fired on Monday morning," said Major Cristophe Prazuck, of the armed forces chief of staff in Paris. Although the French plane, a Breguet Atlantique 2, was not endangered by the missile shot, the army is treating it as hostile fire since no other aircraft was in the sector at the time, the spokesman said. The army did not detect the exact missile type but believes it may have been a shoulder-fired SAM-7, based on the weaponry being used in the Chadian conflict, he said.
| “No specific retaliatory measures have been taken following the incident.” |
No specific retaliatory measures have been taken following the incident.
Numerous rebels hostile to French-backed President Idriss Deby Itno are operating in eastern Chad. After a period of hudna relative calm attributed to the rainy season, violence between the rebels and the army resumed last month. |
