The French military has distanced itself from a photograph taken during its operations in Mali, after the image of a soldier with his face obscured by a menacing skull bandana went viral.Oh, noze! Not a bandana!
The French army issued a statement repudiating the use of the bandana, which is sold as an accessory of the violent computer game, Call of Duty. Colonel Thierry Burkhardt, spokesman for the French chiefs of staff, said the image "is not at all representative of the action undertaken in France in Mali at the request of the Malian state".
Ummm? An accessory to a video game? That's the worst they can come up with?
"Far from being messengers of death", Colonel Burkhardt went on, French soldiers were "risking their own lives" to prevent Mali from becoming a terrorist state controlled by militant Islamists.
They're killing only turbans, not everyone in sight. But if one of them wears a skull bandana any professionalism in that is negated. Res ipsa loquitur.
The photograph was taken last weekend near Niono in central Mali as French and Malian forces advanced to regain ground from a loose alliance of Islamist groups which control the immense deserts and semi-deserts of the north of the country. More than 2,300 French soldiers have arrived in Mali since the operation began.