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PARIS, Nov 27, 2006 (AFP) - A French intelligence agent was killed last week by a militia member at a checkpoint in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, the defence ministry in Paris said Monday.

A second man -- also a member of a diplomatic protection unit -- was seriously wounded in the incident on November 21, according to Le Point magazine which broke the story on its Internet site.

The two men were stopped in their car at a checkpoint, where a member of a local militia fired on them even though they made clear they had diplomatic status, Le Point said.

The defence ministry did not confirm the details but said that Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie attended a military ceremony in honour of the dead man Monday morning in the southern French town of Perpignan.
According to Le Point, the men were from the General Foreign Security Directory (DGSE), France's main foreign intelligence agency.

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To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway