France Names Soldier Killed By ‘Shahed Drone’ Strike Overnight
France has named Chief Warrant Officer Arnaud Frion, a highly decorated elite infantryman, as the soldier killed in a Shahed drone strike on an Iraqi military base overnight.
French political leaders were united in their sympathy for the family of Chief Warrant Officer Arnaud Frion of the 7th Alpine Chasseurs, an elite French infantry unit, killed in action in Erbil, Iraq, overnight. Frion’s unit was stationed at a joint French-Peshmerga military base engaged in the fight against Islamic State extremists and was the target of a drone strike using an Iranian-made Shahed suicide drone, killing one person and injuring five others.
Wounded soldiers are repatriated from Iraq.
A French government statement said Chief Warrant Officer Frion was “killed when he was struck by a Shahed drone at his position.” According to a biography published by the ArmyFrion, 42, enlisted in 2004 and had a distinguished career, including five counterterrorism missions in Mali, two missions in Afghanistan and missions in Chad, Ivory Coast, Niger, and finally deployed to Iraq in January of this year.
He received citations for bravery twice in Afghanistan and once in Niger, and received the Military Medal in 2021, France’s highest military decoration. He is survived by his wife and one child.
Frion is the first French soldier killed in combat in Iraq since 2023 and the French government said the nation was in mourning for his death. Chief of Army Staff General Rock Schill said he “bows before the memory of Warrant Officer Arnaud Frion, who died last night for France”, hailing him as a “beautiful figure of soldier and leader” who “embodied the highest virtues” of France.
French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his condolences to Frion’s family, praised his services and denounced attacks on French forces engaged in the fight against terrorism. But he said Friday there was absolutely no chance France would seek revenge for Frion’s death, saying its intention was to remain strictly on the defensive toward Iran.
Macron said: “Our soldiers were attacked while, as we have been doing for several years, they were fighting as part of an international coalition against the resurgence of terrorism in the region and in the service of Iraqi sovereignty… This is obviously unacceptable. Faced with the ongoing war, France’s position is purely defensive, in support of its allies, and can never justify any attack against it.”
France is “defensive” and “we are not at war with anyone,” Macron added, declaring: “France will continue to demonstrate composure, calm, determination, reliability towards our partners, protection of our citizens and defense of our interests and our security.” Neither Macron nor the French government have explicitly stated that Frion was killed by Iran, although the drone was of Iranian type. The French government says it has launched a “technical investigation” to determine where the drone was launched from and by whom.
The leader of the left-wing catch-all alliance in France Jean-Luc Mélenchon took advantage of his reaction to this death to harangue American President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He said in a statement on Friday:
The illegal war of D. Trump and B. Netanyahu, and the Iranian strategy of regional, even global conflagration, have claimed their first French victims.
Six French soldiers were wounded and adjutant Arnaud Frion was killed. We turn our thoughts of support and affection to them, their families, their loved ones, their comrades. These soldiers were not in Iraq as part of the conflict led by the United States and Israel, but their deaths confirm that the regional conflagration thus triggered threatens the entire world.
We therefore warn the executive: by advancing on the battlefields, France would become a target. This war is not ours, but our dead are. Enough!”
Others were less directly political in their tributes. National Rally leader Marine Le Pen and her deputy Jordan Bardella expressed grief for the family and comrades of the fallen soldier and criticized the attack on French forces on a legitimate counterterrorism mission.
Le Pen said: “To his family, to the injured soldiers and their brothers in arms, I would like to express my pain and my full solidarity. France cannot accept that our armed forces, which defend and protect our interests in the region, are targeted.”
Bruno Retailleau, leader of the conservative Republican party, made similar remarks, declaring: “I think of their families, of their brothers in arms. Proud of our soldiers.”
French newspaper Le Figaro notes that the pro-Iranian militia Ashab al-Kahf did not claim responsibility for the attack, but announced that it is targeting all French interests in the Middle East in revenge for President Macron’s decision to send an aircraft carrier to the region for defensive purposes.
