<ul class="summary-list"><li>On December 24, 1994, <keyword id="13729793" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="air-france-flight-8969" source="Orion">Air France Flight 8969</keyword> was set for a routine flight from Algiers to Paris.</li><li>Instead, the passengers and crew spent three days as the hostages of Islamist extremists.</li></ul><p>The more than 230 passengers and crew aboard <keyword id="12911093" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="air-france" source="Orion">Air France</keyword> Flight 8969 on December 24, 1994, were looking forward to a quick and uneventful flight from Algiers to Paris.</p><p>Before they took off, four men dressed as Algerian policemen boarded the plane for what appeared to be a routine check.</p><p>Three days later, on the tarmac in Marseille, the passengers were freed by a daring raid that was broadcast on live TV, displaying to the world the unique skills of France's elite <keyword id="13729795" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="gign" source="Orion">GIGN</keyword>.</p><h2>Air France 8969</h2><div type="image" title="Hijacked Air France Airbus A300" height="1076" width="1434" msid="91136720" hostid="261"></div><p>In 1989, <keyword id="13729797" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="algeria" source="Orion">Algeria</keyword> wasn't the safest place for foreigners, especially the French. France had colonized Algeria in the early 19th century and hundreds of thousands of French settled there over the following decades.</p><p>In 1962, Algerians won independence from France after a brutal eight-year fight. Internal conflict increased afterward, and by 1989 Algeria was on the verge of war between the government and Islamist rebel groups.</p><p>Relations with France, however, seemed normal, and the passengers and crew of Air France 8969 weren't expecting the four "police officers" to be terrorists set on <keyword id="13729796" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="hijacking" source="Orion">hijacking</keyword> the plane and killing everyone on board.</p><p>The four men were members of the Armed Islamic Group, a hardline anti-Algerian government group that wanted to establish an Islamic state in Algeria. They were armed with AK-47s, Uzi submachine guns, sidearms, grenades, and even sticks of dynamite.</p><p>They demanded the release of some of their comrades in Algerian prisons and to show their commitment they killed an Algerian police officer who happened to be a passenger on the flight.</p><p>Once French officials confirmed the hijacking, the National Gendarmerie Intervention Group was put on standby for an immediate hostage-rescue attempt should the negotiations fail.</p><div type="image" title="French GIGN personnel enter hijacked Airbus A300" height="1240" width="1652" msid="91136721" hostid="261"></div><p>GIGN, as the group is known, is the French police's elite counterterrorism unit, similar to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fbi-hostage-rescue-team-law-enforcement-equivalent-of-delta-force-2020-12" target="_top">the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team</a>. It specializes in counterterrorism and hostage-rescue and has become well known for its responses to deadly terrorist attacks in France.</p><p>The Algerian government barred France from sending the GIGN to its territory, but the French commandos continued their planning and preparations, even using an Airbus A300 to get familiar with the layout of the hijacked plane.</p><p>The terrorists initially indicated that they would release the passengers and crew if their demands were met. But an agent inside the GIA reported to the Algerian government, and by extension to the French, that the hijackers' true aim was a suicide attack on France.</p><p>On December 25, the terrorists released about 60 passengers, mostly women and children. But they then killed another passenger and threatened to shoot one every 30 minutes unless the aircraft was cleared for takeoff.</p><p>After much pressure from the French government, the Algerians let the plane depart to Marseille to refuel before heading to Paris. The GIGN operators were waiting.</p><h2>The GIGN strikes</h2><div type="image" title="Air France Airbus Algiers hijacking hostage GIGN" height="878" width="1400" msid="91136722" hostid="261"></div><p>Once in Marseille, the terrorists demanded three times more fuel than necessary to reach Paris, indicating they had a much longer trip planned — or wanted to turn the plane into a firebomb.</p><p>GIGN operators disguised as airport personnel boarded the aircraft to provide food and clean the toilets, using the opportunity to scout the plane and verify that there were no explosives on the doors.</p><p>By the morning of December 26, the terrorists had grown agitated by French efforts to delay meeting their demands. They ordered the plane to taxi next to the control tower and began shooting at the negotiators there.</p><p>Three GIGN teams on staircars sped toward the plane. Assault team one would secure the cockpit while assault teams two and three took over the cabin.</p><p>Close-quarters-combat operations "inside an aircraft are pretty challenging," a retired Delta Force operator told Insider. "On the one hand, you don't have any serious corners to clear, which is what gets a lot of people during room clearing. But on the other hand, you've got potential hostages all over the place."</p><p>In preparation for a news conference aboard the aircraft — a ruse by the French police — the terrorists had placed most of the passengers in the back of the plane.</p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Q7a5D3sMJKM" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>During hostage situations aboard planes, the hijackers will normally herd people to one part of the aircraft in order to better control them, but they may also spread them out to use them as human shields, the retired operator said.</p><p>The latter scenario is where good close-quarters-combat skills, target discretion, and trigger discipline "really shine," the retired operator added.</p><p>Depending on operational needs, special-operations teams can find lots of ways into an aircraft — Delta Force has developed specialized equipment and techniques to go in through the roof, the former operator said. The GIGN operators forced their way in through the cabin door after their staircars reached the plane.</p><p>Their dramatic dash into the aircraft was captured on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7a5D3sMJKM&amp;t=157s" target="_blank" rel="noopener">live TV</a>. Once inside, a fierce firefight with the terrorists broke out around the cockpit. After 22 minutes of fighting, during which grenades and other explosives were detonated and 400 rounds were fired, the standoff was over.</p><p>All four terrorists were killed. Nine GIGN commandos were wounded. Three passengers had been killed prior to the raid, but none were killed during the gun battle, though 13 of them and three crew members were wounded. One of the pilots managed to open the cockpit window and jump to the tarmac, fracturing his leg upon landing.</p><p>The GIGN had made its name. "An aircraft-hijacking situation is where you tell the difference between a Tier 1 and any other SOF [special-operations forces] unit," the retired Delta Force operator said.</p><p><em>Stavros Atlamazoglou is a defense journalist specializing in special operations, a Hellenic Army veteran (national service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army HQ), and a Johns Hopkins University graduate.</em></p>

An elite French counterterrorism unit gained worldwide fame for a daring raid on a hijacked plane 28 years ago

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54b00cb46da811db6549aeef-1200-800/461225212.jpg" border="0" alt="France Hostage Situation Kosher Supermarket"><p class="source"><span>Dan Kitwood/GETTY IMAGES</span></p><p class="caption">Police mobilize with reports of a hostage situation on Jan. 9, 2015 in Paris, France.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div>It's been an eventful year already for France's special police units.</p>
<p>Three separate "intervention" teams have been called to action since the attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and subsequent hostage crises claimed 17 lives last week.</p>
<p>France sent RAID, which stands for research, assistance, intervention, and dissuasion, and GIGN, the Intervention Group of the National Gendarmerie, to hunt down Cherif and Said Kouachi, who killed 12 people at Charlie Hebdo's offices. </p>
<p>Earlier today, Paris deployed RAID and BRI ("Research and Intervention Brigade") in a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-hostages-taken-in-post-office-in-paris-suburb-2015-1">hostage situation</a> at a post office outside of the capital. Both teams were also used in response to a hostage situation at a kosher market <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/report-guman-takes-hostage-in-a-kosher-store-in-paris-2015-1">in which 4 people were killed</a>.</p>
<p>RAID is a 200-strong special force founded in 1985 to counter major robberies, organized crime and terrorism.</p>
<p>Though it works in areas closest to Paris, RAID can be sent anywhere in France as directed by the nation's traditional police force. That was the case in 2012, when RAID killed <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mohammed-merah-france-history-siege-afghanistan-2012-3">Mohamed Merah</a>, an extremist who killed 7 people during a week-long rampage, after a 32-hour siege in Toulouse in southern France.</p>
<p>RAID was also behind the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/15/newsid_2510000/2510707.stm">rescue</a> of 21 kindergarteners and their teacher in a two-day crisis in 1993. Most of the children - held hostage by a man with 16 sticks of dynamite strapped to his body - were rescued in negotiations leading up to the eventual raid. The perpetrator was killed while asleep in a classroom.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54b94f56eab8ea0f04e0458a-1200-858/french special forces raid post office paris colombes.jpg" border="0" alt="French special forces RAID post office Paris Colombes"><p class="source"><span>Philippe Wojazer/Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">RAID forces secure the entrance to the post offices in Colombes outside Paris, where an armed gunman is holding hostages.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div>RAID is also frequently used in less high-profile situations, as captured in French newsmagazine <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Myf6of8qmiw#t=330">program</a> "Le Droit de savoir."</p>
<p>GIGN is an older organization founded in the wake of the <a href="http://history1900s.about.com/od/famouscrimesscandals/p/munichmassacre.htm">Munich massacre</a> during the 1972 Summer Olympics. French news outlet Le Figaro <a href="http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2015/01/08/01016-20150108ARTFIG00348-charlie-hebdo-gign-et-raid-main-dans-la-main-pour-retrouver-les-terroristes-presumes.php">reports</a> the group has some 400 members based in Versailles, just west of Paris; the organization's <a href="http://www.gendarmerie.interieur.gouv.fr/fre/Sites//Notre-Institution/Nos-composantes2/Groupe-d-intervention-de-la-gendarmerie-nationale-GIGN">site</a> specifies it is capable of fielding 280 armed specialists in extreme situations.</p>
<p>Though similar to RAID, GIGN is more suited to open, rural settings.</p>
<p>The organization<span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> did the heavy lifting in the </span><a href="http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/visuel/2015/01/16/infographie-le-double-assaut-des-forces-de-l-ordre-contre-les-terroristes_4557906_3224.html">firefight</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> with the Kouachi brothers, setting up snipers, vehicles, and assault teams around the industrial building where the terrorists made their last stand.</span></p>
<p>The unit is also trained for interventions on airplanes, as in its forcible response to four gunmen who hijacked Air France Flight 8969 in 1994.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54b9486c69bedd4a53d23c96/air france flight 8969 french special forces gif.gif" border="0" alt="Air France Flight 8969 French special forces GIF"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1rG-i3lsb0">YouTube</a></span></p></img></div><p></p></div></div>Public television channel France 3 reported that since its founding, GIGN has launched more than 1,000 operations and rescued more than 600 hostages.</p>
<p>Finally, BRI is a special unit belonging to Paris's own police department, intervening only within and around the capital. An <a href="http://le.raid.free.fr/bri.htm">unofficial site</a> on RAID and other special police forces reports that BRI counts 48 full members, and can field up to 72 if necessary.</p>
<p>Since the "R" in BRI stands for research, a ten-year veteran of the unit told <a href="http://www.parismatch.com/Actu/Societe/En-operation-avec-la-BRI-deuxieme-partie-147718">Paris Match</a>, only five percent of their work time is in actual interventions in the field.</p>
<p>They're expertly trained for stakeouts and surveillance. "When you've been hiding away undercover in a car for over a month and nothing moves, it can get pretty boring," the unit veteran said. "The real quality you need to work here is patience."</p>
<p>Though the three units are separate, RAID and GIGN especially work closely together. In the late 2000s, French Minister of the Interior Michèle Alliot-Marie initiated joint exercises. And on January 10th, GIGN's Twitter account thanks all three units for their work during an incredibly trying week.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>Merci pour eux <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GIGN?src=hash">#GIGN</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RAID?src=hash">#RAID</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BRI?src=hash">#BRI</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/police?src=hash">#police</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Gendarmerie?src=hash">#Gendarmerie</a> <a href="http://t.co/bO8J3qRYGs">pic.twitter.com/bO8J3qRYGs</a></p>
- GIGN.ORG (@GIGNORG) <a href="https://twitter.com/GIGNORG/status/553891774113263616">January 10, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript"></script>

These Are The Elite French Police Units That Have Been Deployed To Fight Terrorists In The Country 

<p>French media are reporting that there has been heavy gunfire during a police operation in Saint Denis, a nothern suburb of Paris, early Wednesday morning.&#xa0;</p><p>According to a source cited by The Daily Telegraph, there was an exchange of gunfire during the operation. The source could not confirm who was targeted in the operation.&#xa0;</p><p><span>French television station BFMTV said some police had been wounded during the operation.</span></p><p>Videos and photos from the scene are now cropping up on social media. Their veracity cannot yet be confirmed.&#xa0;</p><p><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>La fusillade recommence. 5h05 matin <a href="https://t.co/pYZohgndN2">pic.twitter.com/pYZohgndN2</a></p>- Pierre-Marie Fenech  (@pmfenech) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/666830390326394880">November 18, 2015</a></blockquote><script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div></p><p>&#xa0;</p><p><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BREAKING?src=hash">#BREAKING</a>: Massive <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GIGN?src=hash">#GIGN</a> operation in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SaintDenis?src=hash">#SaintDenis</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Paris?src=hash">#Paris</a> in search apparent 9th <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ParisAttacks?src=hash">#ParisAttacks</a> suspect <a href="https://t.co/9JjMUBwdNs">pic.twitter.com/9JjMUBwdNs</a></p>- Amichai Stein  (@AmichaiStein1) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/666837702004838400">November 18, 2015</a></blockquote><script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div></p><p class="embed-spacer">&#xa0;</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/judge-took-same-sex-couples-foster-child-2015-11">A judge in Utah took away this same-sex couple's foster child</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="lmZDF0eDr-S2CcXCcfvHlVtyjyiBgayt" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'lmZDF0eDr-S2CcXCcfvHlVtyjyiBgayt',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

REPORT: Heavy gunfire during police operations reported in Paris

<p><div class="image-container float_right"><div class="image"><img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/52288edeeab8ea34608b4579-1200-924/boots-on-the-ground-1.jpg?maxX=480" border="0" alt="Boots on the ground" width="480" /><p class="source on-image"><a href="http://www.dvidshub.net/image/110597/forward-logistics-element-replacements-put-boots-ground#.UPgNi6Gs0oY">Geoffrey Ingersoll via U.S. Marine Corps</a></p></div></div>Yesterday's <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/syria-resolution-senate-pass-vote-foreign-relations-committee-2013-9">Senate panel resolution for a limited strike on Syria</a> included a few key lines that could foreshadow the involvement of ground forces.</p>
<p><a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324577304579054973488682120.html">Julian Barnes of the WSJ reports</a><span> [emphasis ours]:</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">The revised options under development, which reflect Pentagon concerns that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has dispersed his <keyword id="6359526" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Military">military</keyword> equipment, include<strong> the use of Air Force bombers</strong> to supplement the four Navy destroyers armed with missiles that are deployed in the eastern Mediterranean. Initially, Pentagon planners said they didn't intend to use aircraft in the proposed strikes.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">...</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span>The Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed a resolution Wednesday saying a goal of U.S. policy will be to <strong>"change the momentum on the battlefield''</strong> in <keyword id="6354913" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Syria">Syria</keyword>'s civil war and speed a negotiated removal of Mr. Assad. The measure would ban the use of ground forces in Syria "for the purpose of combat operations" and sets a 60-day limit for Mr. Obama to launch strikes. It includes a possible 30-day extension if Mr. Obama determined that was needed to meet the resolution's goals.</span></p>
<p>Despite several <a href="http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/09/04/senates-syria-resolution-appears-to-leave-room-for-putting-boots-on-the-ground/">recent posts insisting</a> the administration and Congress <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/09/03/bait_and_switch_obama_syria_congress">have opened the door</a> for a more escalated conflict, Obama insisted from the beginning that the goal of the strikes is "<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/28/world/middleeast/obama-syria-strike.html?_r=0">not about regime change</a>."</p>
<p>But now it seems that things have escalated<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">. Even in Libya, we learned that </span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/most-elite-special-forces-in-the-us-2013-2#air-force-combat-controllers-5">air operations most often require boots on the ground.</a></p>
<p><span>Transcripts from Bill O'Reilly's The Factor on Fox News, March 24, 2011 [emphasis ours]:</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><strong>O'Reilly:</strong>  <span>A former Army intelligence officer, and from Boston, Col. David Hunt, a Fox News military analyst. So we hear special forces are already on the ground in Libya. True, Col. Hunt?</span><span><br /></span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span><span><strong>Hunt: </strong>Yes, absolutely. You've got British service been in there about three weeks ago and actually got captured and released. The French GIGN have been in there and our special forces and our U.S. intelligence operatives and their assets. <strong>We do not conduct operations like this, large scale air operations, without people on the ground.</strong></span></span></p>
<p>The administration went to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/mar/31/gates-rules-out-american-troops-libya">great lengths to deny</a> that any special operations forces were on the ground in Libya, despite assertions to the contrary. Later though, somewhat prophetically to today, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/04/world/africa/04weapons.html?pagewanted=all">the "loss" of several SA-7</a> surface-to-air missiles <a href="http://defense-update.com/20111212_libyaus-eod-teams_manpads_5.html">required the deployment</a> of a moderately sized ground force of active duty <keyword id="42769" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Troops">troops</keyword> and CIA operatives.</p>
<p><span>Flash forward two years to Assad's stockpile of <keyword id="88219" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Chemical-weapons">chemical weapons</keyword>, reportedly the largest in the world and <a href="http://swampland.time.com/2013/08/27/mission-all-but-impossible-destroying-syrias-chemical-weapons-from-the-air/">likely dispersed across the country.</a></span></p>
<p><span><span>If the aim is now to shift the momentum on the ground in order to force the ouster of President Assad, those chemical weapons and their locations will have to be secured. The US has been training rebels to secure these stockpiles for quite some time, but the presence those fractious, disorganized rebel groups offer is superficial at best.</span></span></p>
<p><span>The Pentagon last year estimated that it would <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/16/world/middleeast/pentagon-sees-seizing-syria-chemical-arms-as-vast-task.html?pagewanted=all">take 75,000 ground troops</a> to secure those chemical weapons stockpiles - and it's likely that estimate is not in terms of rag-tag rebels, but rather modern armed and trained soldiers.</span></p>
<p><span><span>Still, Washington maintains that there is "specific writing" in the resolution which bans putting troops on the ground. Though that resolution needs to be renewed every 60 days. The Libyan bombing campaign took 7 months.</span></span></p>
<p><span>It's well within reason to expect the resolution to be amended during this campaign in order to support <a href="http://www.globalpolicyjournal.com/blog/11/03/2013/mali-intervention-evolving-security-governance-africa">"changing needs on the ground"</a> - a common phrase for military commanders - leading to troop deployments.</span></p>
<p><span>With Israel a stone's throw from that stockpile - and the Iron Dome missiles <keyword id="6354810" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Defense">defense</keyword> system <a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/middle-east/not-possible-to-blow-up-chemical-weapons-sites-safely-1.1510580">useless against chemical dispersant</a> - securing it would be top on Obama's list, should the regime suddenly change.</span></p>
<p><span>The New York Times <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/16/world/middleeast/pentagon-sees-seizing-syria-chemical-arms-as-vast-task.html?pagewanted=all">noted last year</a> that Hezbollah militants had moved their camps close to these chemical weapons depots.</span></p>
<p><span>An easterly wind and a shower of chemical weapons could put most of Israel underground in gas masks.</span></p>
<p><span>Seeing those weapons move, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/16/world/middleeast/pentagon-sees-seizing-syria-chemical-arms-as-vast-task.html?pagewanted=all&amp;_r=1&amp;">as David Sanger wrote last November</a>, could force President Obama, as he said in August, to "change [his] calculus" </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">about inserting American forces into Syria." </span></p>

You Searched For "gign" and got 4 results

An elite French counterterrorism unit gained worldwide fame for a daring raid on a hijacked plane 28 years ago

Stavros Atlamazoglou

These Are The Elite French Police Units That Have Been Deployed To Fight Terrorists In The Country

Pierre Bienaimé

REPORT: Heavy gunfire during police operations reported in Paris

Harrison Jacobs

A Subtle Shift In The Senate's Syria Resolution Makes 'Boots On The Ground' Much More Likely

Geoffrey Ingersoll