A French soldier was killed in Iraq on Sunday “during an operational exercise” while taking part in an instruction mission for the Iraqi armed forces, the Elysée announced on Monday.
Warrant Officer Nicolas Latourte, of the 6th Engineer Regiment, “lost his life in the accomplishment of his mission”, declared on X (formerly Twitter) French President Emmanuel Macron, stressing that this death occurred a few days after that of the Sergeant Baptiste Gauchot in a traffic accident, also in Iraq.
“The Nation is associated with the immense pain of their families and brothers in arms of the 19th and 6th engineer regiments”, added the Head of State.
The soldier was participating in Operation Chammal, the French component of the operation of the international coalition Inherent Resolve against the Islamic State group, created in 2014.
“He was taking part in a training mission for the Iraqi army. To tirelessly fight against terrorism”, underlined for his part the French Minister for the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, in a message on X.
He died “accidentally during a joint exercise with Kurdish Peshmerga forces in the Suleimaniyeh region”, in Iraqi Kurdistan, a senior Iraqi army officer told AFP, adding that the shot would have gone off as he “cleaned his weapon”. A version not confirmed by the staff of the French Armies.
A press release from the latter simply indicates that the soldier was “mortally wounded on the sidelines of a combat training exercise in an urban area”, without further details.
His death was recorded in a military hospital in Erbil (north), where he had been transferred in emergency. He was training Iraqi soldiers in the fight against improvised explosive devices.
No more ground operations have been carried out by the coalition since January 2022, the ministry’s website also specifies.
Some 600 French soldiers are currently deployed there. Rafale fighters participate in the mission from air bases in the Levant and the United Arab Emirates, or from the Charles-de-Gaulle aircraft carrier, deployed several times in the region since 2015.
The mission focuses on “military air and sea support to the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF)” as well as advising the Iraqi Armed Forces.
The French Minister for the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, visited Iraq in July, including Erbil. According to the French general staff, a training program for Iraqi battalions should begin by the end of the year, mobilizing “around a hundred French soldiers”.
08/21/2023 17:00:27 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
