President Emmanuel Macron expressed gratitude to the Iraqi prime minister for taking measures to protect French forces, after a drone strike killed a French soldier and injured six others in Iraq's Kurdistan region earlier this week.
Macron published a message in French and Arabic on social media platform X on Saturday, saying he had spoken directly to Iraqi prime minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.
"I thank him for his commitment to getting to the bottom of this attack and to strengthening measures to protect our forces, who are present in Iraq to fight, alongside the Iraqis, against the scourge of terrorism," Macron wrote.
Arnaud Frion, 42, was killed and six other French soldiers were wounded on Thursday evening in a drone attack in the Erbil region of Iraqi Kurdistan.
He is the first French soldier to die since the start of the war in the Middle East two weeks ago.
French soldier killed in Iraq as pro-Iran group vows to hit France's interests
Frion was part of Operation Inherent Resolve – a Western military contingent deployed in the autonomous Kurdistan region to combat a potential resurgence of the jihadist Islamic State group – which seized swathes of Syrian and Iraqi territory in 2014.
The operation has been scaled back in recent years after the jihadist group's territorial defeat in 2016, although the IS group still maintains a presence in Syria's desert.
Calls for regional de-escalation
Since 2022, the Western force is no longer undertaking ground missions and is now primarily limited to air strikes, targeted operations and training members of the Kurdish security forces.
The operation's headquarters also moved from Baghdad to Kurdistan's capital Erbil at the end of 2025.
Since the beginning of the war, Iraqi Kurdistan and Erbil have suffered numerous attacks attributed to pro-Iranian factions, most of which have been neutralised by air defences.
Macron said he would pursue "our coordination and our efforts to promote the country's stability and sovereignty, as well as regional de-escalation."
Transfer of IS prisoners to Iraq puts renewed pressure on European governments
Iraq's prime minister vowed to prevent further attacks after Frion's death.
Macron has condemned the attack as unacceptable, but reaffirmed France's "purely defensive" stance in the conflict.
He refrained from attributing the attack, carried out by an Iranian-designed drone, to any specific group or country, or from mentioning a possible retaliation.
Without directly claiming responsibility for the strike, a pro-Iranian armed group in Iraq said on Friday it would target French interests in the region.
The statement on Ashab Alkahf's Telegram channel also warned "our brothers in the security forces" to stay away from a base it said housed French troops.
Meanwhile, a drone struck the US embassy in Baghdad on Saturday, an Iraqi security official said.
The attack followed strikes targeting the powerful Iran-backed group Kataeb Hezbollah, killing two members including a "key figure", security sources told French news agency AFP.
None of the sources said who was believed to be behind the embassy strikes, and the Kataeb Hezbollah group has not commented.
(with newswires)
