Vive les pirate busters

THIS dramatic image of elite troops swooping on Somali pirates as they tried to flee with a reported £1 million ransom has been released by the French army.

The pirates had just freed 30 crew members of a luxury French-owned yacht whom they had taken hostage in the Gulf of Aden on 4 April.

The images were released as Hervé Morin, France's defence minister, warned Paris would not tolerate extortion attempts.

The elite French commandos moved in after the crew of the yacht Le Ponant were released on Friday. Military helicopters tracked the pirates to the village of Jariban, Somalia and moved in when they saw some of them trying to flee the scene.

A sniper disabled the engine of the getaway car, while another helicopter dropped off three French commandos, who captured six of the 12 pirates.

"This is the first time a country has decided not to let itself be extorted, but also to take matters into its own hands," Mr Morin said as he praised the French special forces for apprehending the hostage-takers.

General Jean-Louis Georgelin, France's chief of the general staff, said that the pirates, who are thought to be Somali fishermen, "gave themselves up without too much difficulty".

He said the operation was "an intervention, not a pulverisation" and confirmed that Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, had ordered that the pirates be captured alive if possible.

Gen Georgelin also stressed no "public money" had been paid to the kidnappers. However, he hinted that the boat's owners, French firm Compagnie des Iles du Ponant, had paid a ransom, saying troops had found "some interesting bags" when the pirates were seized.

A source said the firm had paid £1 million to free the hostages, and a portion of the money was recovered when the pirates were detained. Francois Fillon, the French prime minister, confirmed the recovery of the money.

Mr Fillon also called on the United Nations to adopt an international anti-piracy law at the next session of the UN Security Council to protect shipping in areas where maritime piracy is on the rise, such as in Somalia.

In the last ten years, 3,200 sailors have been captured by pirates, with 500 injured and 160 killed. Ransoms are frequently paid to ensure their release.

The 22 French members of the 30-strong crew of Le Ponant are expected to be brought back to France tonight, Mr Morin said.

Claude Vergez-Larrouget, a doctor on the helicopter-carrier Jeanne d'Arc where the freed hostages underwent medical checks, said they were in "quite satisfactory" condition and had not been mistreated.

Last night, the French foreign ministry indicated it would like to see those captured brought to France for trial.

A spokesman said: "The foreign affairs ministry and the justice ministry are working together to ensure these people will be tried in France."

However, the fact the yacht was boarded in international waters then taken to Somalia's territorial waters and the kidnappers later captured on Somali soil, could complicate the possibility of a French trial.

NEWSPAPERS PRAISE DISCRETION AND WISDOM

FRANCE proudly celebrated a successful intervention by its military to capture the Somali pirates, as the country's media splashed the exploit across its front pages.

"Failure for the Pirates," trumpeted the popular daily newspaper Le Parisien next to a photograph of the hostages escaping from the luxury yacht, Le Ponant, by dinghy.

Most of the media paid tribute to "an exceptional operation" by the military and focused on the relief of the families, who appeared largely indifferent to reports that a ransom had been paid.

"It doesn't bother me," said the father of one hostage, named only as Thibault. "I would have given my life for my son to be released."

The left-leaning Libération noted that the Elysée's discreet handling of the affair marked a change in President Nicolas Sarkozy's governing style.

"By avoiding any political exploitation of the success in Somalia, Mr Sarkozy has chosen wisdom, in contrast with his old ways," it said in an editorial.

EFFECTIVE ACTION

FRIDAY, 4 APRIL: Somali pirates board luxury yacht Le Ponant, as it crosses Gulf of Aden. Thirty crew taken hostage. Paris launches emergency "Sea Pirate" plan.

SATURDAY, 5 APRIL: Pirates sail toward northern Somali coast of Puntland.

SUNDAY 6 APRIL: French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner announces he has made contact with pirates. Ponant drops anchor south of Puntland.

MONDAY 7 APRIL: Elite French commando team, including helicopters, sent to neighbouring Djibouti.

TUESDAY 8 APRIL: President Nicolas Sarkozy receives families of French hostages at Elysée Palace. Reassures them that all is being done to help.

FRIDAY 11 APRIL: Crew released "without incident" after yacht's owner apparently pays £1 million ransom. Pirates flee yacht. French helicopter-borne troops swoop on gang and three French commandos capture six of 12 pirates. Sacks of money recovered.

French élan carries the day, but just don't ask too closely about the murky details

ANALYSIS: CLIVE FAIRWEATHER, Former SAS second in command

ANY successful special- forces operation is dependent on stealth, surprise then shock action and, by all accounts, the recovery of the hostages and capture of the pirates responsible for the hijacking of the yacht Le Ponant in the South Arabian seas, by French commandos, will go down in the history books as such. Thirty crew members have apparently been freed, 22 of them French, and six of 12 pirates captured.

By any standards, these are impressive figures; for example the "butcher's bill" at the end of the Iranian Embassy siege in London in May 1980, which was ended by the SAS, was one terrorist captured, five terrorists and two hostages dead, with only 19 rescued.

Moreover, the latter was carried out in the glare of the world's television cameras, whereas the French authorities seem, so far, to have managed to keep such critical and insidious analysis to a few released images, all apparently under their control. More significantly, there are no apparent fatalities, which frankly is amazing.

Nevertheless, doubts that only six of 12 pirates were captured linger on, with much speculation and eyeball rolling being given by the international press to what may have happened to the "missing" six (and that they may somehow have been "erased" by the French, who are internationally renowned for their sang-froid – witness the covert and fatal attack against the yacht Rainbow Warrior off New Zealand in 1985) .

The strategic dimension of this gritty operation should not be ignored, either. It took place a long way from the French homeland. Admittedly, it was close to a former French enclave at Djibouti, but in terms of "reach" it ranks with the successful operation at Entebbe launched by the Israelis in 1976 and the separate ending to an aircraft hijacking by GSG9 German commandos at nearby Mogadishu in 1977.

The French have undoubtedly developed impressive tracking abilities using the latest technologies, at least in their strategic areas of interest, and there is absolutely no doubt that this operation could not have been so peacefully rendered successful without the crucial and detailed intelligence these provided.

It is also noteworthy that the French deployed a hospital ship in support, should things go wrong. Soviet special forces, for example, seem to have ignored similar medical cover in terrorist atrocities in Moscow, then subsequently at Beslan.

All in all, this operation is something for Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, and his government to savour.

Some French panache and élan appears, for the moment, to have delivered the flavour of international success.

Behind the scenes, the details may be far more murky (they usually are), but possibly these can be passed off with that renowned Gallic shrug.