Niger kidnappings show terror's spread

 Niger kidnappings show terror's spread: "With stunned diners looking on, the turbaned attackers burst through the metal door of the open-air restaurant and went straight for their targets: two Frenchmen whom they brazenly dragged at gunpoint into a vehicle waiting outside.
The kidnapping, blamed by French authorities on al-Qaida's North Africa branch, ended with the pair's tragic deaths during a failed French-led rescue attempt over the weekend. The bold hostage-taking showed in the most chilling way that abductions like these are no longer limited to the distant, lawless deserts of northwestern Africa where smugglers and bandits have long held sway.
This abduction on Friday happened right in Niger's capital, Niamey.
David Zounmenou, a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria, South Africa, said it shows the kidnappers 'have the capacity to operate freely wherever they want.'
'They are no longer limited to looking for victims in places without state authority,' he observed. 'They can go anywhere.'"