A second French soldier has died from wounds sustained in a weekend ambush against United Nations peacekeepers in Lebanon, an attack that President Emmanuel Macron and the United Nations have attributed to the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
Corporal Anicet Girardin, a member of a specialist dog-handling unit, died on Wednesday after being evacuated from Lebanon. He was one of three soldiers injured in the same attack that killed Staff Sergeant Florian Montorio on Saturday. Hezbollah has denied responsibility for the ambush.
“Corporal Anicet Girardin… brought home yesterday from Lebanon, where he was badly wounded by Hezbollah fighters, died this morning of the consequences of his wounds,” Macron wrote on X.
Details of the Attack
According to Armed Forces Minister Catherine Vautrin, Girardin was part of a mission “to clear a route booby-trapped with an improvised explosive device.” She described how the unit came “under sustained fire from concealed Hezbollah fighters at very close range.” Girardin moved to aid his section leader, who had just fallen, only to be seriously hit in turn.
Macron and Vautrin offered their condolences to Girardin’s family and loved ones. He is the third French soldier to die since the start of the recent escalation in the Middle East, following Montorio and the killing of Arnaud Frion last month by an Iranian drone in Iraq’s Kurdistan region.
Both Macron and UN Secretary-General António Guterres have blamed Hezbollah for the Saturday attack on peacekeepers belonging to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). French soldiers in UNIFIL “are working bravely and determinedly in service of France and peace in Lebanon,” Macron wrote.
Established in 1978, UNIFIL has more than 10,000 peacekeepers from 50 countries who patrol the Blue Line, the UN-drawn border between Lebanon and Israel, while also engaging in efforts to de-escalate tensions between the two sides. In August last year, the UN Security Council voted unanimously to terminate the peacekeeping force at the end of 2026, bowing to demands from the United States and its close ally Israel.
The incident underscores the fragile security situation along the Blue Line and the risks faced by international peacekeepers. France, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, has historically been a major contributor to UNIFIL, with around 700 troops deployed. The deaths have prompted renewed calls for accountability and restraint from all parties.
