a drone attack<\/a> on March 12 targeted a Kurdish military base in Iraq\u2019s Erbil region, killing French Chief Warrant Officer Arnaud Frion and wounding six others. <\/p>\nFrench Armed Forces Minister Catherine Vautrin said Saturday that the soldier was killed during an ambush. She said he was on a mission to open a route toward a UNIFIL post that had been isolated for several days due to fighting in the area between Hezbollah and Israeli forces. <\/p>\n
A 10-day ceasefire took effect in Lebanon on Friday, but it wasn\u2019t clear to what extent Hezbollah would abide by a truce it did not play a role in negotiating.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was caught in an ambush by an armed group at very close range,\u201d she said on X. \u201cImmediately hit by a direct shot from a light weapon, he was pulled back under fire by his comrades, who were unable to resuscitate him.\u201d<\/p>\n
UNIFIL said a patrol clearing explosive ordnance along a road in the village of Ghandouriyeh on Saturday to re-establish links with isolated UNIFIL positions came under small-arms fire from non-state actors. UNIFIL said one peacekeeper succumbed to his injuries and three others were injured, two of them seriously.<\/p>\n
Macron demands clarification of the incident<\/p>\n
Macron spoke with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam following the attack \u201cin order to call on the Lebanese authorities to shed full light on this incident, to identify and prosecute those responsible without delay, and to do everything possible to ensure the safety of UNIFIL soldiers, who must under no circumstances be targeted,\u201d Macron\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n
Salam posted on X that he has ordered an investigation into the attack and to bring the perpetrators to justice. Aoun and Lebanon\u2019s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri condemned the attack. <\/p>\n
The Lebanese army condemned the attack in a statement adding that it will continue its \u201cclose coordination\u201d with UNIFIL. The army added that it is investigating the attack to detain the perpetrators. <\/p>\n
Macron also reiterated \u201cthe importance of full respect for the ceasefire by all parties and reaffirmed France\u2019s commitment to Lebanon\u2019s sovereignty, for the benefit of all Lebanese people and regional stability.<\/p>\n
Israel confirms it carried out strikes in Lebanon<\/p>\n
Earlier Saturday, the Israeli military said it had conducted aerial and ground strikes in southern Lebanon adding after it identified several incidents in which militants \u201cviolated the ceasefire understanding\u201d by approaching areas close to where Israeli troops are located.<\/p>\n
The military mentioned for the first time what it called a \u201cYellow Line,\u201d saying militants tried to approach it from the north.<\/p>\n
There is no mention of a \u201cYellow Line\u201d in the 10-day ceasefire agreement that was announced by President Donald Trump and went into effect this week.<\/p>\n
The U.S. State Department said Thursday that according to the ceasefire agreement, Israel reserves the right to defend itself \u201cat any time, against planned, imminent or ongoing attacks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Senior Hezbollah official Mahmoud Qammati told Lebanon\u2019s Al-Jadeed TV Saturday that the group will not tolerate any Israeli strikes similar to what happened after the November 2024 truce, when Israel continued to carry out almost daily airstrikes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis time we will not practice the strategic patience policy,\u201d Qammati said.<\/p>\n
_____<\/p>\n
Petrequin reported from London.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BEIRUT (AP) \u2014 A U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon came under attack with small arms fire Saturday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71887,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[32],"tags":[719,2371,327,26558,26556,38,1143,54,1509,26517,197,100,196,37,199,849,93,26557,324,768,1243,200,82],"class_list":["post-71886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lebanon","tag-2024-2025-mideast-wars","tag-2024-2026-mideast-wars","tag-ali-khamenei","tag-arnaud-frion","tag-catherine-vautrin","tag-donald-trump","tag-emmanuel-macron","tag-europe","tag-evacuations","tag-florian-montorio","tag-general-news","tag-hezbollah","tag-iran-war","tag-israel","tag-israel-government","tag-joseph-aoun","tag-lebanon","tag-mahmoud-qammati","tag-mideast-wars","tag-military-and-defense","tag-united-nations","tag-war-and-unrest","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116426633685003822","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}