French Soldier Dies of Wounds After Attack on UN Force in Lebanon

President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday that a second French soldier had died following an attack on United Nations peacekeepers in Lebanon last week, which he said was carried out by Iran-backed Hezbollah. The soldier, Chief Corporal Anicet Girardin, was severely wounded on April 18 and died of his wounds after ‌being evacuated to ‌France on Tuesday, Macron said in ‌a ⁠post on social ⁠media platform X. One of his colleagues was killed immediately while clearing a road in southern Lebanon in the same attack on the UN peacekeeping mission. Macron blamed Hezbollah for the attack. UNIFIL said initial assessments indicated the fire came from non-state ⁠actors, allegedly Hezbollah, and that an ‌investigation had been launched into ‌what it called “a deliberate attack”. Hezbollah has denied any ‌involvement, expressing its “surprise at positions that rushed ‌to make baseless accusations” against the group. During a visit to Paris on Tuesday, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said he was personally following the investigation into the incident. “I ‌have instructed the police force to carry out all necessary inquiries in order ⁠to ⁠identify those responsible and bring them to justice,” he said. France, which has deep historical ties to Lebanon, has about 700 troops as part of the UNIFIL mission. Three French soldiers have now died in the region since the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran at the end of February. One was killed earlier in northern Iraq after a drone attack on a French-Kurdish base. Since 1978, more than 160 French soldiers have been killed in Lebanon.