Although details are still sketchy, it seems that Algerian government forces have rescued some of the European tourists taken by Islamic terrorists of the ‘Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat’, who are part of the Al Qaeda network. Some reports indicate that both Austrian and German special forces (perhaps GSG 9?) were involved in the operation assisting the Algerians.
This is very good news indeed!
But were they operating under a UN flag?
The Germans have been itching to do this on their own since this started. I doubt the UN played a role in this.
And what does “This is very news indeed” imply? 🙂
Andy: it means the author of the article is running on 4 hours sleep over the last 48 hours
If I’m not mistaken, I believe GSG-9 is technically a Federal Border Guards unit, which means that by law it is restricted from conducting operations in foreign countries. If German forces were involved, then it would more likely be the KSK, which is the German commando force more similar to the British SAS or American Special Operations Command groups.
See, now you’ve learned something new today.
Not so Jason… GSG 9 was the outfit which mounted the Mogadishu airliner hostage rescue in October 1977 (with a couple SAS ‘advisers’).
Cheers.
Testing
test
Yes Stacy, these are testing times indeed!