Somali Al-Shabaab says French captive killed, fears for 41 hostages

The Al Qaeda-linked Somali al-Shabaab rebels claimed Thursday they had executed Denis Allex, the French secret agent kidnapped in Mogadishu in 2009, after a French mission to rescue him failed Saturday. Al Qaeda’s African wings have threatened to execute all 10 French hostages they are holding unless France ends its Mali offensive.
Paris has repeatedly claimed that Denis Allex died in the failed French rescue mission, in which two French soldiers were killed. The fate of the 41 foreign hostages al Qaeda is holding at the Algerian gas field is now feared in Paris, Washington, Tokyo, London and Oslo. As DEBKAfile reported earlier,  the French intervention in Mali has united al Qaeda’s African factions.