Three other troops, including Girardin, were wounded in the incident, with one more described as being in serious condition.<\/p>\n
Girardin, a member of a specialist dog-handling unit, was part of a mission \u201cto clear a route booby-trapped with an improvised explosive device,\u201d Armies Minister Catherine Vautrin posted on X.<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\tBy signing up, you agree to the terms<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cComing under sustained fire from concealed Hezbollah fighters at very close range, he moved to aid his section leader who had just fallen, only to be seriously hit in turn,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n Le caporal-chef Anicet Girardin du 132\u00e8me r\u00e9giment d\u2019infanterie cynotechnique de Suippes, rapatri\u00e9 hier du Liban o\u00f9 il avait \u00e9t\u00e9 gravement bless\u00e9 par des combattants du Hezbollah, est mort ce matin des suites de ses blessures.<\/p>\n Il est mort pour la France.\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/1eokASMl57<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) April 22, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Macron and Vautrin offered their condolences to Girardin\u2019s family and loved ones.\n<\/p>\n He is the third French soldier to die since the start of the recent round of fighting in the Middle East, after Montorio and the killing of Arnaud Frion last month by an Iranian drone in Iraq\u2019s Kurdistan region.<\/p>\n Both Macron and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres have blamed Iran-backed Hezbollah for the Saturday attack on peacekeepers belonging to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).<\/p>\n French soldiers in UNIFIL \u201care working bravely and determinedly in service of France and peace in Lebanon,\u201d Macron wrote.<\/p>\n While France and the UN leader named Hezbollah in their statements on the attack on the peacekeepers, UNIFIL itself\u00a0refrained from doing so explicitly, instead blaming \u201cnon-state actors,\u201d code for the Iran-backed terror group.<\/p>\n Hezbollah has denied any involvement, expressing its \u201csurprise at positions that rushed to make baseless accusations\u201d against the group.<\/p>\n During a visit to Paris on Tuesday, Lebanon\u2019s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said he was personally following the investigation into the incident.<\/p>\n \u201cI have instructed the police force to carry out all necessary inquiries in order to identify those responsible and bring them to justice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n France, which has deep historical ties to Lebanon, has about 700 troops as part of the UNIFIL mission.<\/p>\n Girardin\u2019s death adds to the growing toll of UNIFIL troops killed recently in southern Lebanon. Three Indonesian peacekeepers were killed last month, with a preliminary UN investigation finding one was killed by Israeli tank fire, while the two others were killed by an improvised explosive device likely planted by Hezbollah.<\/p>\n \t Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East conflict on March 2 when Tehran-backed Hezbollah attacked Israel to avenge the death of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei, with Israel responding by firing waves of strikes at Hezbollah targets and launching a ground offensive. A 10-day ceasefire was declared by the US last week, following direct talks in Washington between Israeli and Lebanese envoys, and Beirut is currently pushing for an extension of the truce to allow for further negotiations.<\/p>\n UNIFIL is stationed in southern Lebanon to monitor hostilities along the border. The mission, which will be halted at the end of 2026, has been sporadically caught in the crosshairs of both Israel and Hezbollah over the last few years.<\/p>\n Israel has long argued that the observer force has failed in its mission, doing little to block Hezbollah from building up its forces near the Israeli border over the decades.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\tA French contingent of UNIFIL peacekeepers patrols the area as displaced residents waving Hezbollah flags make their way back to their homes on a makeshift road, built at the site where the Qasmieh bridge was destroyed in Israeli strikes, in the southern Lebanese area of al-Qasmiyeh on April 18, 2026. (Mahmoud Zayyat\/AFP)<\/p>\n
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