September18, 2008:  On September 16th, French commandos rescued two French citizens, who were kidnapped by Somali pirates on September 2nd as they were sailing the yacht from Australia to France (via the Suez canal). The rescue operation took ten minutes, and the only casualty was one of the seven pirates, who was killed. The other six were captured and will be taken back to France for trial.

France and the United States have special operations forces (commandos and special aircraft) stationed next to northern Somalia in Djibouti. French commandos had raided the pirates to grab 30 French hostages last April. The recent operation was delayed for two days because of high winds. The French were eager to grab the yacht before the Somalis could move it to their main base, which is on the northeast coast, far from Djibouti.

The French and American commandos in Djibouti can quickly be reinforced, and apparently the French forces were for both rescue operations. France has let it be known that French commandoes may be carrying out rescue operations for non-French ships. That has given the pirates a scare, as they have a justifiable fear of the commandoes.