He managed to escape and joined the Free French in North Africa.

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Ten years ago, even this garment was virtually unknown in France, since most French Muslims originate from north Africa, where traditionalists cover only the hair, not the face.

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Asked on French radio about the location of French hostages kidnapped by Islamists in North Africa in recent years, Adm Guillaud said he had no information on their whereabouts.

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In a statement, Rep. Ed Royce, R-California, called the attack "the latest demonstration of a large and growing radical movement across North Africa" and said the French "have acted appropriately" in intervening in Mali.

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When Roosevelt was planning to invade North Africa in 1942, key to his strategy was to minimize French resistance to the seizure of these African colonies before the Germans could grab them.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center For Security Policy

"French security officials have publicly said for some time that they are especially concerned that Westerners could come back from North Africa or the Sahel to launch attacks, " Lebovich told CNN.

CNN: Algeria attack changes terror landscape in North Africa

His chronicle of the Anglo-American campaign in North Africa, which lasted for just seven months of 1942 from the first inauspicious landings in French Morocco to the Axis defeat in Tunisia married together official accounts, private diaries, letters and statistics with narrative flair, humour and a deep sense of the epic.

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