A national homage ceremony for Arnaud Frion, the French warrant officer killed in Iraq on Thursday, will take place Tuesday morning at the 7th Battalion of Alpine Hunters in Varces (Isère). It will be led by Minister Catherine Vautrin, with General Pierre Schill present. President Emmanuel Macron will meet the widow, promoted to major, and the wounded soldiers.
France's Ministry of the Armed Forces announced on Monday a national homage ceremony for Arnaud Frion, 42, killed Thursday evening in a drone strike at «camp Black Tiger», a peshmerga base southwest of Erbil in Mala Qara, Iraqi Kurdistan. Six other French soldiers were injured in the attack and have been repatriated and hospitalized in France. The troops were deployed as part of the international coalition against the Islamic State, established in 2014. Shahed drone attacks, blamed on pro-Iranian factions, have repeatedly targeted the area, though most have been neutralized by air defenses. The tribute will occur Tuesday at the 7th Battalion of Alpine Hunters in Varces, where Frion served. Minister Catherine Vautrin will preside, joined by the Army Chief of Staff, General Pierre Schill. President Emmanuel Macron will meet the widow of the warrant officer, posthumously promoted to major, and visit the «brothers in arms who were wounded», the Élysée stated.
