| Submit your comments on this article |
| Africa: Subsaharan |
| French Shoot Down Ivory Coast Warplanes |
| 2004-11-06 |
| Government warplanes bombed a rebel stronghold Saturday, killing a French peacekeeper and injuring 20 other people, and French troops responded by shooting down two military planes and an attack helicopter, U.N. officials said. The violence threatened to drag French and U.N. peacekeepers into Ivory Coast's renewed civil war, sparked when army hardliners Thursday broke a cease-fire after more than a year of relative peace and launched airstrikes on rebel-held cities. The government warplanes struck the northern town of Bouake on Saturday afternoon, killing the French soldier, U.N. mission spokesman Jean Victor Nkolo said. It was not clear whether the 20 injured were French soldiers or others, or what the air raid was targeting. Soon after, a U.N. military spokesman said French forces shot down two Ivory Coast warplanes and an attack helicopter over rebel territory. [snip] Zut alors! |
| Posted by:Chuck Simmins |
| #8 9 dead French soldiers and 22 wounded + an American aid worker. Sounds like the Ivorans attacked not a rebel, but a French base. Have the Ivorans decided to kick out the French presence and get on with the war? |
| Posted by: ed 2004-11-07 10:45:19 PM |
| #7 Mrs. D, Since Sept. 5 1781, in Chesapeake Bay. |
| Posted by: Darth VAda 2004-11-07 10:44:45 PM |
| #6 More details here, including this - "Everybody get your Frenchman!" young men in the mob shouted to each others. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2004-11-07 10:43:22 PM |
| #5 Their greatest feat of naval arms since...? |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2004-11-07 10:42:04 PM |
| #4 The French were fairly successful against Green Peace in New Zealand at the Battle of the Rainbow Warrior. That was back in '85. A purely naval engagement, though. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2004-11-07 10:41:36 PM |
| #3 Probably the Chadian civil, which was largely a secret war between France and Libya. Link here This mostly unreported war was interesting, not least because it showed lightly armed irregulars could beat massed heavy armor. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2004-11-07 10:41:09 PM |
| #2 Don't know about planes. Last time they tried to sink a ship was when they launched the Charles de Gaulle. Last time they attacked a ship was with Exocet missiles thru their Argentine proxy during the Falklands War. |
| Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) 2004-11-07 10:40:32 PM |
| #1 Whoa! Mark 2:14 EST. What was the last time the French Armed Forces shot down a plane? Really I'd like to know... Algeria? |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-11-07 10:39:37 PM |