ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Sirwan Barzani, commander of the Makhmour-Gwer front, described as “deeply shocking” an attack on a joint Peshmerga-French base in Mala Qara, around 60 kilometers southwest of Erbil, that killed a French soldier and injured six others.
Barzani visited the site of the strike following the incident.
Early Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed that a French soldier was killed in a drone attack targeting the joint base, which also left several personnel injured. Macron described the attack as “unacceptable.”
Following the strike, a shadowy Iran-aligned Iraqi armed group warned that French interests in Iraq and across the region would be “under targeting fire,” after the arrival of the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle in the region.
“It is deeply shocking that such an atrocity would be carried out at a time when both the French forces and the Peshmerga have stood alongside the Iraqi Army in the fight against ISIS, working for the stability and security of all of Iraq,” Barzani wrote on Facebook, alongside a photo of himself among the trails of destruction left by the attack.
Barzani added that neither force had taken part in the recent regional attacks, making the incident “all the more senseless.”
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani on Friday pledged to launch an investigation into the drone strike during a phone call with Macron.
“The necessary measures will be taken to prevent a recurrence of such targeting,” Sudani said in a statement.
In a separate call with Macron, Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani said it was “the responsibility of the Iraqi government to set limits on illegal groups.”
Erbil Governor Omed Xoshnaw said Thursday that no Peshmerga personnel were harmed in the attack.
France maintains hundreds of troops in the Kurdistan Region, where its forces train Peshmerga fighters as part of the global coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS).
The Kurdistan Region has endured nearly 300 drone and missile attacks since the start of Iran’s war with the US-Israel coalition on February 28, many of which were carried out by pro-Iran armed groups operating inside Iraq.