Iraq
French President Emmanuel Macron welcomes Iraqi PM Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani at the Elysee Presidential Palace, in Paris, on January 26, 2023. AFP file photo
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani on Friday pledged to launch an investigation into a drone attack on a joint French-Peshmerga base near Erbil that killed a French soldier and wounded six others, during a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron.
Sudani told Macron that the Iraqi government would conduct an investigation into the incident and that “the necessary measures will be taken to prevent a recurrence of such targeting.”
Macron earlier on Friday confirmed that a French soldier was killed in Erbil in a drone strike targeting a joint Peshmerga–French military base, which also left several personnel injured. He described the attack as “unacceptable.”
“Chief Warrant Officer Arnaud Frion of the 7th Alpine Hunter Battalion of Varces died for France during an attack in the Erbil region of Iraq,” Macron wrote on X. “To his family and comrades-in-arms, I express all the affection and solidarity of the Nation.”
Following Frion’s death, a shadowy Iran-aligned Iraqi armed group on Friday warned that French interests in Iraq and across the region would be “under targeting fire,” after the arrival of the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle in the region.
The Kurdistan Region has endured nearly 300 drone and missile attacks since the start of Iran’s war with the US-Israel coalition on February 28, many of which were carried out by pro-Iran armed groups operating inside Iraq.
In an earlier phone call with Macron, Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani said it was “the responsibility of the Iraqi government to set limits on illegal groups.”
Senior Peshmerga commander Sirwan Barzani told Rudaw late Thursday that seven French personnel were injured at the base, which hosts French military advisers and trainers who “have nothing to do with war and conflict and are only military advisers legally present in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.”
He described the attack as unlawful and called on Baghdad to take action.
Erbil Governor Omed Xoshnaw said Thursday that no Peshmerga personnel were harmed in the attack.
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).
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