9781422287828

12 Surviving Hostage Rescue Missions

GSG-9 operators brace themselves for a fast entry through a door. They carry the 9-mm MP5 submachine gun made by Heckler & Koch.

boats, and buildings. Marksmanship skills are also constantly maintained to provide excellence. Each combat team fires in excess of one million rounds of ammunition a year. GSG 9 achieved an outstanding success in October 1977, when hostages being held in a Lufthansa Boeing 737 at Mogadishu Airport, Somalia, were rescued safely. France’s GIGN France’s counter-terrorist and hostage rescue unit is called Groupe d’Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale (GIGN). France has experienced