France has confirmed that two of its citizens who were kidnapped from a restaurant in Niamey, the capital of Niger, on Friday have been killed.

法国政府已经证实，上周五在尼日尔首都尼亚美一座宾馆被劫持的两名法国公民已经被杀。

The two men were taken away from a crowded restaurant in the centre of Niamey
French Defence Minister Alain Juppe said they died during an attempted rescue operation by Niger's national guard near the border with Mali.

President Nicolas Sarkozy condemned¹ the killings² as "cowardly and barbaric（野蛮的） ".

No group has said it was behind the abduction（绑架） , but al-Qaeda's North African offshoot has seized Westerners before.

"With the operation launched and coordinated³ with French elements in the region, the terrorists were intercepted⁴（拦截，截取） at the Mali border and several of them were neutralised," Mr Juppe said.

"After the fighting, the two hostages were found dead."

A Niger government source told Reuters news agency that the bodies of the two hostages had been flown back to Niamey.

Exchange of fire

Search operations were launched after witnesses said men wearing turbans（穆斯林头巾） entered a restaurant in Niamey and took the men away in a car.

Government spokesman Laouali Dah Dah said the kidnappers⁶ spoke⁵ Arabic, French and Hawza, but that their identity could not be confirmed as they had their faces covered.

One of the kidnapped men was reportedly an aid worker due to be married to a woman from Niger, and the other man was his friend.

Later on Friday evening, Niger's security forces exchanged fire with the gunmen near Ouallam, not far from Mali.

Mr Dan Dah said security forces had "intercepted the kidnappers a few kilometres north of Ouallam and there were exchanges of fire".

But the clash ended with the kidnappers escaping after the troops withdrew out of fear of wounding the hostages.