A member of the French special forces was killed Monday in Iraq during an anti-jihadist operation in support of the Iraqi army, the Elysée announced on Tuesday, bringing to three the number of French soldiers killed in August in the country. “It is with very deep emotion that the President of the Republic learned of the death of Sergeant Nicolas Mazier of the No. 10 air parachute commando, killed yesterday in Iraq while his unit was supporting an Iraqi unit in an anti-terrorist operation” , announced the French presidency, adding that other members of his unit had been injured alongside him.
“The Nation mourns again today one of its sons. While on a mission to fight terrorism in Iraq, Sergeant Nicolas Mazier fell under enemy fire. I extend my condolences to his family, loved ones and to his brothers in arms. In the face of terrorism, France will not back down,” reacted the Minister for the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, in a press release.
French and Iraqi allied forces “ambushed”
According to an Iraqi security source in Kirkuk, Monday evening, a joint operation “of Iraqi counter-terrorist forces and soldiers of the French forces stationed at the K1 base in Kirkuk suffered an ambush” of jihadists from the Islamic State (IS) group in the province of Salahedine, in the al-Aïth desert, bordering the province of Kirkuk. French soldiers were injured, she added, as well as three members of the Iraqi counter-terrorism service. According to her, the armed clashes lasted “more than five hours”.
Two other French soldiers were killed in Iraq in August, one in an accident and the second during an “operational exercise”. Some 600 French soldiers are deployed in the region as part of Operation Chammal, the French component of the operation of the international coalition Inherent Resolve against the Islamic State group, created in 2014. After a meteoric rise in power in 2014 and the conquest of vast territories in Iraq and neighboring Syria, the IS has seen its self-proclaimed “caliphate” crumble under the blow of successive offensives in these two countries.
5,000 to 7,000 Daesh members in Iraq
In March, a senior Iraqi military official assured, however, that the IS had between 400 and 500 active fighters in Iraq. A UN report published in July explained that “the counter-terrorism action of the Iraqi forces (had) continued to lead to a reduction in the activities of Daesh (acronym in Arabic for EI, editor’s note), which nevertheless maintained an insurgency low intensity”. Despite everything, the “operations” of the jihadists “have been stemmed in rural areas, while the frequency of attacks in urban centers has decreased”, according to the same source.
According to this report, “the main structure of Daesh persists and continues to number 5,000 to 7,000 members in Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic, most of whom are fighters”.