Played it through!
Took 9 casulties, pour la France!
Somali pirates lost 166 men, a few bunkers, 2 trucks, the ammo supply depot and both patrol boats.
Landed the bulk of the French Marines south of the compund and battled it out with the enemy. Repeated air strikes took out the patrol boats. Had some trouble with finding and killing that pirate 12.7mm HMG (it acounted for several Marines
).
Shot up the ammo supply depot but did not have time to take the flag nearby. Took the flag on the wire though, provoking the AI to counterattack. Loaded up the troops on the choppers by turn 11. Game ends.
Some observations:
It is usually better to make the intended human controled side Palyer 1, in this case France, as player 1 moves first.
If you want to delete some elements of either forces, like here the motorised transport of the French RIMa you can buy a sniper or a jeep and assign the not wanted trucks, armoured cars etc to this formation and delete the entire formation in the purchase screen. Note, the unit flags might stick to the map if units are deleted - but there are workarounds for this.
Also something that could come in handy during scenario design; it is possible to make the AI move units while the AI is given a delay/defend mission, i.e. while the majority of the AI units are defending you can give say a reaction force a counterattack mission. Although the AI will not attack with much finesse this can help keep the human player on his toes...