France says agents foiled Dakar rally kidnap plot
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French officials say they thwarted a plot to kidnap driver Stephane Peterhansel, shown kissing his navigator after winning the grueling Paris-Dakar rally.
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PARIS, France (Reuters) -- French secret agents foiled a bid by Islamic militants to kidnap contestants in the Paris-Dakar rally this month as they raced across the Sahara desert state of Mali, the Defense Ministry said on Thursday.
A spokesman said the DGSE foreign intelligence service had played a key role in preventing what the Le Point weekly news magazine said on Thursday was a plot by a 100-strong gang to attack participants in the gruelling rally.
Two stages of the almost 7,000 mile (11,000 km) race were scrapped earlier this month due to the security alert.
"French intelligence had information which led us, with our colleagues in Mali ... to take decisions which you have been able to read about in the press," a Defence Ministry spokesman said.
Le Point, whose details the ministry declined to confirm or deny, said Defence Minister Michele Marie-Alliot discussed the threat during a trip to Mali's capital Bamako in December.
It said the French-backed operation had prevented leading French rally driver Stephane Peterhansel and Spanish motorcyclist Nani Roma from falling into the Islamists' hands.
Le Point said the group, heavily armed with machineguns mounted on their all-terrain vehicles, had intended to kidnap the pair in Mali's southern Sokolo region on January 10.
The magazine said the group had fled north once they realised the ambush scheme had been discovered.
Copyright 2004
Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
