PARIS, (Reuters) – France is at war with al Qaeda’s North African branch and will intensify military support for governments in the region combating the Islamist fighters, Prime Minister Francois Fillon said yesterday.
He was speaking in a radio interview a day after President Nicolas Sarkozy confirmed that a 78-year-old French hostage kidnapped in Niger and held by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) had been killed following a failed French rescue mission.
“We are at war with al Qaeda and that’s why we have been supporting Mauritanian forces fighting al Qaeda for months,” Fillon told Europe 1 radio, saying that AQIM consisted of about 400 fighters operating in a desert area the size of Europe.
Asked what Sarkozy meant when he said the killing of retired engineer Michel Germaneau would not go unpunished, the prime minister said: “It means the fight against terrorism will continue and will be reinforced.”
He declined to give details for security reasons. How-ever, he stressed the government’s policy remained to negotiate with hostage-takers whenever possible to save French lives. Asked whether Paris would retaliate militarily, he said: “France does not practise revenge.”
Sarkozy has said he decided to launch a raid into Mali with Mauritanian forces last Thursday only after failing to establish any negotiating channel with the kidnappers and because he feared for the hostage’s life after an al Qaeda ultimatum.
The opposition Socialists said they would not criticise the government’s action in the hostage affair.
