“Sadness” And ” anger “. With these two terms, Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot reacted, on France Info this Thursday morning, to the death of Master Corporal Anicet Girardin in Lebanon. The day before, this 31-year-old non-commissioned officer, member of the 132nd canine infantry regiment, succumbed to his wounds following exchanges of fire with Hezbollah militiamen in the south of the country.
“An attack on the international community”
“To attack peacekeepers in this way, to peacekeepers who are perfectly identifiable on the ground, not only constitutes a war crime, but also an attack on the entire international community, because it is the community that gives the mandate to the peacekeepers”denounced the head of French diplomacy. After the deaths of Warrant Officer Florian Montorio in Lebanon on Saturday and Chief Warrant Officer Arnaud Frion in Iraq on March 12, France now has three soldiers dead since the start of the war in the Middle East.
Jean-Noël Barrot clarified the circumstances of the death of the dog handler: “It was during an ambush that they were targeted and succumbed to their wounds. Everything suggests that the responsibility for this crime lies with Hezbollah (…) We demanded that those responsible for this heinous act be arrested and brought to justice and the Lebanese authorities assured us that they gave the highest priority to this investigation.. This Wednesday, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun assured that his country will give “top priority” to the investigation. Regarding the two other French soldiers injured in the attack, the minister indicated that they were “repatriated and taken care of on French soil”without giving details of their condition.
The two soldiers who died in Lebanon were part of the 700 French people involved in Operation Daman, set up in August 2006 after the “33-day war” between Hezbollah and Israel. Since the creation of UNIFIL under UN Resolution 479 in 1978, after Israel’s invasion of South Lebanon, France has paid a tribute of nearly 150 military personnel (soldiers or gendarmes) who died in the Land of the Cedars. 58 of them lost their lives in the suicide attack on the Drakkar building in Beirut on October 23, 1983. Although the person responsible was never named, strong suspicions already weighed on the young Shiite militia, created in 1982.
