Three French soldiers killed in drive-by

They have described the overnight attack as a criminal act.It followed a similar shooting on Sunday in the nearby city of Toulouse when an off-duty soldier was shot dead by an assailant on a motorcycle.The French defence ministry says the three soldiers, from the locally based 17th Parachute Engineering Regiment (RGP), were aged 28, 26 and 24.After initially announcing the death of the 28-year-old, it retracted the statement, saying he had been airlifted to Toulouse for treatment.A police source says the two others died on the spot.The defence ministry is confident that the justice system, under the authority of French prosecutors, will be able to shed all light on this criminal act as quickly as possible, Defence Minister Gerard Longuet said in a statement.Local officials say the shooting happened around 2.10pm on Thursday local time on a street not far from the base housing the regiment, which has recently served in Afghanistan.The gunman, wearing a helmet with visor, got down from the scooter, fired on the three uniformed soldiers on a street near shops and a bank branch, then got back on and rode off at speed.Investigators found 15 spent cartridges at the scene, police said.It was not clear if the victims were withdrawing money from the bank but a television news report said one of them had.Authorities launched an extensive search for the gunman involving a large number of police and national gendarmes.In Sundays incident, a 30-year-old soldier was shot dead by an assailant on a motorcycle in a residential area of Toulouse, 46 kilometres south of Montauban.Prosecutors say they are considering a number of possibilities in that shooting, including that it was the result of a personal dispute.Toulouse prosecutor Michel Valet said they were asking serious questions about the similarities between the two incidents.President Nicolas Sarkozy was cautious in reacting to the incident.The circumstances are confusing and at this time we cannot give any kind of explanation, he told