PARIS — A French agent who escaped after being held hostage by Islamist rebels in Somalia arrived back in France on Thursday, an official with knowledge of the operation told AFP.The security advisor, one of two French agents kidnapped in Mogadishu on July 14, arrived in Paris at around 1:30 pm (1130 GMT) on board a special flight from Djibouti, where France has a major military base, he said.The former hostage presented himself to African Union peacekeepers at Somalia's presidential palace on Wednesday, explaining that he had slipped past sleeping guards from the Hezb al-Islam militia to make his escape.French officials have not formally identified the former hostage beyond describing him as a government employee who was part of a two-man advance team in Mogadishu to help set up a Somali presidential security detail.He has identified himself in interviews with several media outlets since his apparent escape as 40-year-old Marc Aubriere, although it is thought possible that he gave a fake name.Official sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that "Aubriere" is an agent with the French overseas intelligence agency, the General Directorate of External Security or DGSE.Having returned to France he will now be "debriefed" by the agency's specialists about the circumstances of his kidnap.The second agent is still missing and understood to be in the hands of a second Islamist group, the Shebab, which on Wednesday said that an Islamic Sharia court would decide his eventual fate.An Islamist official in Somalia claimed that a ransom was paid for the freed hostage, but both the French government and the agent himself have denied that and insist he escaped through his own means.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-somalia-escape27-2009aug27,0,2867644.story
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8222835.stm
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