Raid: at the heart of a mission by the elite police unit
Ten years ago, they marched down the Champs-Élysées as guests of honor at the traditional Bastille Day military parade, six months after the January 2015 attacks, where they demonstrated their bravery by participating in the hostage rescue. This year, the Raid celebrates its 40th anniversary. On this occasion, we attended a training session of this elite police unit in the heart of Paris.
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In the snipers' sights, a barge sailing up the Seine. On board, three terrorists have taken 80 passengers hostage. This is the scenario of today's training for the Raid men led by Commander David. "We haven't been able to make contact with the perpetrators of the hostage-taking. We don't know their demands. The situation is increasingly tense on the boat. We've been asked to intervene," explains the head of the Raid Intervention Section.
Two helicopters and three Raid boats encircled the barge. Snipers opened fire. One of the terrorists returned fire before being neutralized. From the Seine, in column, the Raid men invaded the first floor of the boat. A second hostage-taker was hit. Simultaneously, airborne troops were deployed using a rope to the deck of the barge. The assault lasted less than two minutes. Every move, every procedure, every duration was rehearsed several times a month.
"We have to distinguish between who is a hostage and who is a hostage-taker. We have to be able to scan everyone. And that's something we have to do in training. The challenge is to put ourselves in a difficult situation in training so that afterwards, in real conditions, we've seen just about every scenario we could face. We have to get to the point where it's automatic," emphasizes Captain V., head of the Raid Airborne Group.
For the canine team, the exercise must also be realistic. A vest containing explosives has been hidden at the rear of the barge. Within seconds, the dog manages to locate it. On deck, the RAID medic administers first aid to one of the terrorists injured during the assault. Two hours earlier, on the parade ground, Commander David briefed his men for the exercise.
Eighteen years of Raid behind him, and numerous interventions have left their mark on the man, but more generally, on the Raid, and even on the whole of France. In March 2012, he had recently joined the unit when Mohamed Merah sowed death, killing three soldiers in Toulouse and Montauban, before murdering a teacher and three children from a Jewish school in Toulouse. The assault would be launched after ten days of manhunt. Commander David was part of the assault column: "It was the first intervention of this type, by a radicalized individual who wanted to go all the way and die a martyr, and take as many people as possible with him. We are there to intervene in the most complicated situations, and the word 'serve,' which is also part of the Raid motto, 'serve without fail,' takes on its full meaning," comments the elite police officer.
In 2015, the men of the Raid were on the front line during the assault on the Bataclan . But also during the liberation of the hostages at the Hyper Cacher. Operations that bring a group together. And for the most recent arrivals, like a young captain, they are part of the Raid's DNA. "We are all there by vocation (...) and there is a kind of esprit de corps that overcomes the difficulty," explains Captain V. Each year, the men of the Raid conduct around a hundred exercises, this one. Enough to practice their skills and always seek to improve. This is almost as many as real operations: in 2024, they intervened 80 times for hostage-takings and entrenched fanatics.
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