Kurdistan
French soldiers from the Wagram Task Force next to a unit of CAESAR, a French self-propelled 155 mm howitzer, north of Mosul on July 13, 2017, as the French army provided military support for Iraq forces fighting ISIS. AFP file photo
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Six French soldiers were injured late Thursday in a drone attack targeting a joint Kurdish Peshmerga-French military base outside the city of Erbil, an official confirmed to Rudaw.
“In the attack on the Mala Qara front, six French soldiers were injured,” Erbil Governor Omed Xoshnaw said, adding that the injuries were not critical. The town of Mala Qara is situated around 60 kilometers southwest of Erbil.
Xoshnaw noted that no Peshmerga personnel were harmed in the attack.
Senior Peshmerga commander Sirwan Barzani told Rudaw that seven French personnel were injured at the base, which hosts French military advisors and trainers.
“The French who were there have nothing to do with war and conflict and are only military advisors who are legally in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region,” he said.
Barzani described the attack as unlawful and called on Baghdad to take action. “The terrorist acts that are being carried out against the Kurdistan Region and even Iraq are very unlawful, and the Iraqi government must set limits for them,” he said.
France maintains hundreds of troops in the Kurdistan Region, where its forces train Peshmerga fighters as part of the global coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS).
The Kurdistan Region has been targeted by repeated drone and missile attacks since the start of Iran’s war with the US-Israel coalition on February 28.
Italian officials said on Thursday that their base in the Kurdish capital was targeted by an explosive-laden drone late Wednesday. However, Xoshnaw said the reported attack was actually debris from an intercepted drone that fell near the base.
Updated at 1:54 am.
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