A French soldier was killed in a drone attack on a joint French and Kurdish Peshmerga base near Erbil in the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq. French President Emmanuel Macron said Chief Warrant Officer Arnaud Frion died during the strike, which also wounded six others. The attack was widely attributed to Iranian-backed militias that have repeatedly targeted the region.

France has supported Iraqi forces and the Kurdish Peshmerga in the fight against the Islamic State group for more than a decade, alongside the United States and other allies. In recent years, militias backed by Iran have intensified drone and missile attacks on the Kurdistan Region, frequently striking military bases, the Erbil airport, and locations associated with foreign personnel.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani pledged to investigate the attack and said measures would be taken to prevent similar incidents. However, Baghdad has long allowed Iranian-backed militias to operate within the country’s official security framework, where they function as paramilitary forces while also carrying out independent strikes.

A group calling itself Ashab al-Kahf threatened further attacks on French interests, linking its warning to the deployment of the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle to the region. Kurdish commanders condemned the strike as shocking, noting that French and Kurdish forces have fought together to support Iraq’s stability and security.