the situation changed. Overwhelmed by superior forces, Goukouni's forces were in peril; this led France to plan a mission to help the Tibesti rebels. On the night of September 16th and 17th, two Transall transport aircraft parachuted 6,000 litres of gasoline, munitions, provisions and anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles into the Tibesti. It was also reported by Le Monde that a small number of French soldiers had secretly entered the Tibesti to support Goukouni's men. On 2 January 1987 Habré's troops invaded the capital of the Ennedi, Fada; the battle was a triumph for the Chadians, while 781 Libyans remained on the ground. A decisive role was played by French supplies, especially the anti-tank MILAN missiles. Gaddafi answered by violating the red line of the 16th parallel; Libyan planes bombed Arada, 110 km south of the line, and Oum-Chalouba, close to a new French base established at Kalaït, exactly on the 16th parallel, manned by 250 troops. France's reaction was to bomb again on January 7 the airbase of Ouadi Doum: the fourteen aircraft employed in the operation destroyed the Libyan radar station, but limited themselves to this. In what appears to have been an escalation, Libyan forces raided the French-Chadian base of Kalaït on January 11; it was the first direct attack on the French contingent, which suffered no losses. Additionally, Gaddafi prepared a vast offensive: he added 4,000–6,000 troops to the 8,000 men stationed in the Bourkou-Ennedi-Tibesti. In the meantime, the French also strengthened their forces; in February Operation Épervier reached 2,200 men and established two new bases at Biltine and Abéché (Camp Moll), in eastern Chad. Habré concentrated most of his forces near Fada; and when on March 18 the Libyan offensive was at last started the result was a disaster for Gaddafi. 1,200 Libyans were killed and 500 taken prisoner, and Faya-Largeau, the main Libyan stronghold in Chad, was taken without fighting on March 27. In this recapture of Northern Chad, France did not officially take part in the fighting; but it is believed that a special unit of the DGSE (Service Action) participated in the taking of Ouadi Doum. In May, when the French Defence Minister Alain Giraud visited the town of Faya-Largeau, the policy of respect of the 16th parallel by the French troops was declared no longer applicable. Libyan expulsion from Chad did not end the Chadian–Libyan conflict: the dispute over who was the