A French military officer was killed and six French soldiers were wounded when a drone struck a base near Erbil in Iraq's Kurdistan region, according to statements reported by Al Jazeera.
French President Emmanuel Macron identified the officer as Arnaud Frion and said he had died during an attack in the Erbil area. Macron condemned the strike on French forces as unacceptable and said other soldiers had been injured. The French military separately reported that six service members were wounded and taken promptly to the nearest medical facility. It did not disclose their conditions or provide further details about their treatment.
The base was described as a joint facility used by French personnel and Kurdish Peshmerga forces in the Makhmur area. Erbil Governor Omed Khoshnaw and an unnamed security source told Reuters, as relayed by Al Jazeera, that at least six French soldiers were injured in the drone attack.
The report did not establish independently who launched the drone that hit the joint base. Iranian state television had announced a wave of drone attacks against US bases in Erbil, but the available account did not provide evidence directly linking Iran to the strike that caused the French casualties. That distinction remained important as several armed actors reported operations in Iraq during a widening regional conflict.
Earlier on March 12, Iraq's Defence Ministry said four explosive-laden drones targeting a military site in the northern province of Nineveh had been intercepted. The Makhmur area lies amid the broader security zone spanning parts of Nineveh and the Kurdistan region. No further details in the supplied report connected that attempted attack to the strike on the French-Peshmerga facility.
The incident came as France reinforced its military posture in and around the Mediterranean. France had moved the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle into the region on Macron's orders, while the amphibious helicopter carrier and the frigate Languedoc were also deployed as part of the French response to the Middle East crisis. Air-defence personnel accompanied the Languedoc to Cyprus.
Macron had said several days earlier that France was preparing for the possibility of a prolonged conflict and had deployed substantial naval and air capabilities. He also said French forces had recently conducted interception operations alongside partners, without giving operational details.
French authorities did not announce a change to those deployments in the account, nor did they identify any immediate retaliatory action.
The deadly strike therefore placed French personnel directly among the casualties of the regional escalation, while key questions about the drone's launch point, operator and intended target remained unanswered in the available reporting.
