Second French UNIFIL soldier dies following Hezbollah attack

A second French soldier from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon died on Wednesday, succumbing to wounds sustained during a terrorist attack in Southern Lebanon over the weekend, French President Emmanuel Macron said on X.

“Corporal Anicet Girardin of the 132nd Cynotechnical Infantry Regiment of Suippes, repatriated yesterday from Lebanon where he had been seriously wounded by Hezbollah fighters, died this morning from his injuries,” Macron tweeted.

“The Nation, which will pay tribute tomorrow to Warrant Officer Florian Montorio, mortally wounded during the same ambush, salutes with emotion the memory of Corporal Anicet Girardin and his sacrifice,” the president added.

Staff Sgt. Montorio was shot dead on April 18 in an apparent Hezbollah ambush. Three other UNIFIL service members were injured in the incident.

Macron at the time accused Hezbollah of carrying out the attack, urging Lebanese authorities to “immediately arrest the perpetrators.”

According to outlet Euro News, Hezbollah has denied involvement in the incident.

French Armed Forces Minister Catherine Vautrin wrote on X in French that Girardin was clearing a route in Southern Lebanon that had been rigged with an improvised explosive device when the UNIFIL troops came under “heavy fire from Hezbollah fighters at very close range.”

Girardin is the third French soldier to die since the start of the joint U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, after Montorio and the killing of Chief Warrant Officer Arnaud Frion in March by an Iranian drone in Iraq’s Kurdistan region.