Ouvéa cave hostage taking
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The Ouvéa cave hostage taking was an event occurring from April 22, 1988 to May 5, 1988 in which independence fighters took 27 French gendarmes and a judge as hostages in the island of Ouvéa, New Caledonia, requesting instant independence of New Caledonia from France.
4 hostages were murdered.
[edit] Assault
On May 5, 1988, the Gossannah cave, in which the abductors had sought refuge with their hostages, was assaulted by:
- 34 parachutists from the 11th Shock Parachutist Regiment;
- 16 combat divers from the Hubert Naval commando;
- 14 gendarmes of the GIGN;
- 11 parachutist gendarmes of the EPIGN.
The assault "Operation Victor" included the use of flame throwers by the parachutist engineers against independentists operating an AA-52 machine gun from a cave. The AA-52 was an old weapon stored in a gendarmerie stockpile which had been pillaged. 19 hostage takers and 2 military personnel were killed in the action.
