Date: 3 February 1976

Location: Djibouti

Type of event: terrorism

Description:

At 8:00 AM four terrorists seized a school bus with 30 French children in Djibouti and forced the driver to drive to the Djibouti-Somali border. Negotiations faltered and the following day French GIGN troops arranged to retake the bus. A meal with tranquilizers was sent to the bus for the children. GIGN snipers killed the four terrorists plus a fifth who had entered the bus from across the Somali border, but the fifth terrorist was able to shot and kill one girl. Additional terrorists engaged the troops from the Somali border, but GIGN troops killed 30 of these terrorists, suffering no losses themselves.

Consequences: 36 killed

References:

• Darman, Peter, 1993, Surprise Attack: Lightning Strikes of the World's Elite Forces, Barnes and Noble Books.
• Dorn, Michael, and Chris Dorn, 2005, Innocent Targets: When Terrorism Comes to School, Safe Havens Int'l.
• GIGN, on line, GIGN [http://www.gign.org/groupe-intervention-gign/missions-zoom.php?id=5].
• Special Operations.com, "GIGN, school bus hijacking, Djibouti, 4 February 1976," on line, Special Operations.com [http://www.specialoperations.com/Counterterrorism/Djibouti.html].

© 2017 by Wm. Robert Johnston.
Last modified 3 December 2017.
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