One French soldier killed, 6 injured in Iraq after drone attack

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday has condemned an attack in northern Iraq that killed one officer and wounded several soldiers in the Erbil region.

Six French soldiers providing counter-terrorism training in the region were wounded in a drone attack, France's army said on Thursday, just hours after an Italian base was also targeted in the area.

France has hundreds of troops based in the Erbil region as part of a broader international coalition to fight IS fighters in the area.

In a post on X, Macron said Chief Warrant Officer Arnaud Frion "died for France" and several soldiers have been injured in the attack.

"Their (French soldiers) presence in Iraq is strictly within the framework of the fight against terrorism. The war in Iran cannot justify such attacks."

Arnaud is the first European soldier killed in the conflict. It was not immediately clear where the drone had come from.

Iraqi rebels have picked up the pace of drone and missile attacks on US interests in Iraq in the last three to four days, according to three Iraqi security sources and two sources close to the groups.

Erbil Governor Omed Koshnaw said in a statement that the drone attack was in the Makhmour area.

An overnight airstrike that hit an Italian military base in Iraqi Kurdistan was deliberate, the Italian defence ministry said earlier on Thursday, targeting a facility hosting NATO personnel.

France is deploying about a dozen naval vessels, including its aircraft carrier strike group, to the Mediterranean, Red Sea, and potentially the Strait of Hormuz as part of defensive support to allies threatened by the conflict in the Middle East.

The leaders of Iran, Israel, and the United States all voiced defiance and vowed to fight on as the Middle East war approached the two-week mark on Friday, killing thousands of people, disrupting the lives of millions of others, and shaking financial markets.