PM Barzani mourns death of French soldier in car accident
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani on Saturday extended his condolences to the family of a French soldier who died in a car accident near Erbil a day earlier.
“We join the French government and people in mourning the loss of Sergeant Baptiste Gauchot in a road accident near Erbil today,” Barzani said in a social media post on X, previously known as Twitter.
“Our thoughts are with his family during this tragic time. We also pray for the swift recovery of the wounded soldier,” he added.
Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani similarly extended his condolences to the soldier’s family as well as French President Emmanuel Macron.
“It is with deep sadness that I learned of the death of the French serviceman, Sergeant Baptiste Gauchot, who sadly lost his life in a road accident late last night while on duty within the International Coalition Forces Against ISIS,” President Barzani said in a statement, extending his “deepest condolences” to the family of the soldier and French President Emmanuel Macron.
We join the French government and people in mourning the loss of Sergeant Baptiste Gauchot in a road accident near Erbil today.
— Masrour Barzani (@masrourbarzani) August 19, 2023
Our thoughts are with his family during this tragic time. We also pray for the swift recovery of the wounded soldier -mb.
President Macron said the soldier died while “taking part in a training mission for the Iraqi armed forces.”
Erbil and Paris share close economic, cultural, and political ties. The two capitals are sister cities.
As an integral part of the US-led coalition against ISIS, France has provided the Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga forces with training as well as air support in the Kurdish forces’ fight against the terror group between 2014 and 2017.
French defense minister visited Kurdistan Region in late July and met with the Kurdish leadership.