30 crewmembers were taken hostages by a crowd of Somali armed with AK47 and RPGs.
The French military deployed the Pirate-Mer Plan and activated the Navy commandos based in Djibouti. They also sent a squad of GIGN operators. Maritime counter terror is a joint responsability of both Navy commandos and GIGN.
The Naval commandos were dropped by plane over the Navy gunship on site (and part of Task Force 150). That's what French special forces call a Tarpon : a parachute jump in the sea.
The (young) Admiral responsible for the Navy Special forces and the GIGN CO make a Tarpon jump to manage the situation.
There are now in the theater of operation 60 commandos and 10 GIGN operators.
The situation worsen : the pirates exhange fire with a rival Somali group.
As the Target ship was too difficult to storm (because of the gigantic three masts that made an helicopter approach a hazard), the French shipping compagny agreed to pay the ransom : 2 million USD.
DGSE intelligence officers are present too as they know the region pretty well : they negociated, in december 2008, the freedom of a French journalist in Somalia.
The pirates leave the ship with the ransom in separated groups. The French forces spot a SUV on the run and decide to intercept it.
From a Chopper a sniper disables the SUV engine with a 12,7mm round and the commandos seize 6 pirates along with 10% of the ransom.
