Ben Laden vows to kill hostages if France stays
France is "determined" to keep troops in Afghanistan despite a threat from al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden linking their mission to the fate of French hostages there, the foreign ministry said Friday.
Osama bin Laden said the release of two French hostages in Afghanistan depends on a pullout of their country’s soldiers and warned Paris of a "high price" for its policies, in a tape broadcast on Friday.
A speaker, who sounded like the al-Qaeda leader, said in an audio message broadcast on the pan Arab television station Al Jazeera, said to the French people: "The refusal of your president to withdraw from Afghanistan is the result of his obedience of America, and this refusal is a green light to kill your prisoners … "
"But we will not do that at the time that he determines to try and finish off with the repercussions of his position, which will cost him dearly within France and outside of it," he said.
This is the second tape that al-Qaeda’s leader, believed to be hiding in the mountainous border areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan, has released blasting French policy and linking the French presence in Afghanistan to the kidnapping of its nationals in Niger.
On October 27, he warned in a video that France’s security depended on an Afghanistan pullout and end of its "injustices" against Muslims.
"We repeat the same message to you: The release of your prisoners in the hands of our brothers is linked to the withdrawal of your soldiers from our country," said the speaker said.
"But we will not do this at a timing that suits him," he said, adding the warning that French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s stand would "cost him and you a high price on different fronts, inside and outside France."
Mocking France
Cameraman Stephane Taponier and reporter Herve Ghesquiere, who work for France 3 public television, were seized along with three Afghan colleagues in December 2009 in the mountainous and unstable Kapisa province, east of Kabul.
Bin Laden, in the tape whose authenticity was not immediately possible, warned in a mocking tone that Paris "with its debt and budget deficit does not need new fronts."
France 3 revealed in December that a new video which the kidnappers made a month earlier of the kidnapped journalists had been released to French authorities, although not made public.
Taponier’s parents were shown the film at the foreign ministry in Paris and said afterwards that the two hostages appealed in the video to their government for help and looked thin but in good shape.
The French government has said securing the release of the journalists was an "absolute priority."
AQIM as threat
France has eight hostages held across the world, five held by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in Niger, two in Afghanistan held by the Taliban, and one in Somalia.
Seven foreigners, including five French employees of Areva and Vinci were kidnapped in Niger in September. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghrib the north African wing of the militant group claimed responsibility.
The Sept. 16 kidnapping was an escalation in the hostilities between the militant group and France. AQIM killed 78-year-old Frenchman Michel Germaneu last July after French commandos took part in a failed raid to free him.
AQIM also claimed responsibility last week for two Frenchmen found dead after a failed rescue attempt in Niger early January, but did not say how the men died.
Earlier this month, two Frenchmen abducted from a restaurant in the Niger capital Niamey were found dead in Mali after a failed attempt by French special forces to rescue them from an al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb convoy.
And in a video broadcast in April 2010, the former Taliban rulers of Afghanistan threatened to kill the two French journalists unless their own prisoners were released.
At the end of October, then French defense minister Herve Morin raised the possibility of the start of a troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2011 while stressing it would not be linked to Al-Qaeda’s threats.
Unlike Britain and Spain, France has never been attacked by al-Qaeda at home, despite being a NATO member that took part in the invasion of Afghanistan and still having troops there.
But analysts say that al-Qaeda, and in particular AQIM may now pose a growing threat to targets in France, not just French interests in Africa’s Sahel.
Analysts suspect al Qaeda senior leaders such as bin Laden would like AQIM to up the stakes in this way, calculating that an attack on French soil will have far greater political impact on the West than killing French citizens in remote areas of impoverished African countries.
France has around 3,750 soldiers deployed in Afghanistan.