A second French soldier has died after being wounded in a weekend ambush against UN peacekeepers in Lebanon blamed on Hezbollah, President Emmanuel Macron said.
Corporal Anicet Girardin was part of a mission to clear a route booby-trapped with an improvised explosive device when he came under sustained fire from concealed Hezbollah fighters at very close range.
Girardin moved to aid his section leader who had just fallen, only to be seriously hit in turn. He is the third French soldier to die since the start of fighting in the Middle East.
Macron and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres have blamed Iran-backed Hezbollah for the Saturday attack on peacekeepers belonging to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
The UN force, established in 1978, has over 10,000 peacekeepers from 50 countries patrolling the Blue Line, the UN-drawn border between Lebanon and Israel.