Overview
- France will hold a national tribute Tuesday at 11 a.m. in Suippes, with a second public ceremony at noon in Paris led by the city’s military governor.
- Anicet Girardin was gravely wounded on April 18 during demining near Deir-Kifa when an explosive device struck a UN patrol and gunmen ambushed it, killing Sgt. Maj. Florian Montorio.
- He was evacuated to France for treatment and died of his wounds last week, and a third French serviceman from the same patrol remains hospitalized.
- Paris and the United Nations attribute the ambush to Hezbollah, and French officials are now urging sanctions and accountability measures.
- France’s contingent serves under UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon that bars offensive action, and Girardin is the third French soldier killed in this regional flare-up since February 28 after Arnaud Frion in Iraq and Montorio in Lebanon.