They were freed in a raid that was caught on live TV and introduced France's elite GIGN to the world. The more than 230 passengers and crew aboard Air France Flight 8969 on December 24 ...

Founded later than its GIGN and GIPN counterparts, RAID was born in 1985 and currently has an end-strength of about 200 operators and another 200 support personnel. RAID is divided into three ...

France sent RAID, which stands for research, assistance, intervention, and dissuasion, and GIGN, the Intervention Group of the National Gendarmerie, to hunt down Cherif and Said Kouachi ...

Two main units were involved: The National Gendarmerie Intervention Group (GIGN) and the Research Assistance Intervention Dissuasion (RAID). A counter-terrorism unit of the French military ...

A raid by France’s elite National Gendarmerie ... followed the day after that by the liberation, again by the GIGN, of his wife, found tied up in a vehicle, police said.

The operation marked the conclusion of a 48-hour manhunt for the entrepreneur and his wife who had been rescued by the gendarmerie's GIGN tactical unit just 24 hours prior. The couple had been ...

A raid by France's elite National Gendarmerie Intervention ... followed the day after that by the liberation, again by the GIGN, of his wife, found tied up in a vehicle, police said.

A raid by France’s elite National Gendarmerie ... followed the day after that by the liberation, again by the GIGN, of his wife, found tied up in a vehicle, police said.

Once the GIGN took care of business, RAID had to make its move. At 5:15 the diversionary devices detonated in blinding flashes of light and ear-splitting bursts. The entry was explosive and ...