France alerts troops after men disappear
NZPA Paris The French Defence Ministry has confirmed that intervention units of the armed forces have been placed on alert in connection with the disappearance of two Frenchmen in a guerrillatroubled portion of Mauritania. But a Defence Ministry spokesman has denied allegations that 18 transport planes carrying 1600 soldiers have already left for an unknown destination in northern Africa. Mauritania says that the two Frenchmen were kidnapped with 24 local workers by the Algerian-based Polisario movement, which is fighting the take-over of the former Spanish Sahara
by Morocco and Mauritania. France has been trying to remain neutral in the conflict over the Sahara, but Algeria has accused it of favouring Morocco. The Polisario have been holding a Frenchwoman and five Frenchmen since a raid on May 1 on the Mauritanian mining town of Zouerate. At a press conference at the week-end, a French proPolisario organisation said that France had set in motion an armed military manoeuvre to intervene in the Sahara conflict. Citing military sources, a spokesman for the Association of Friends of Sahara Arab Republic said that on Wednesday marine and parachute units had left for an
unknown destination from a military base near Toulouse in southern France. The group’s spokesman said the intervention forces took with them about 100 radar units capable of monitoring a distance of about 1600 km. The Defence Ministry spokesman, admitting that intervention units were placed on simple alert on Friday, called the group’s charge that an operation had already begun “a complete fabrication.” In Algiers, a communique from the Polisario movement said its forces had knocked out an important Moroccan supply convoy on October 25, killing 80 Moroccan soldiers and taking 12 others prisoner.
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Press, 31 October 1977, Page 8
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287France alerts troops after men disappear Press, 31 October 1977, Page 8
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