Two days after the death of Sergeant Baptiste Gauchot, a second French soldier lost his life in Iraq, Sunday August 20. Warrant Officer Nicolas Latourte died during an “operational exercise”, indicated the Élysée, the Minister of the Armies Sébastien Lecornu specifying that he “was participating in a training mission for the Iraqi army”. Sergeant Gauchot died on Friday August 18, after a “traffic accident”. He was also engaged in this Iraqi army training mission.
The presence of French soldiers in Iraq and Syria has been less publicized in recent years, overshadowed by other large-scale operations, such as Barkhane in the Sahel. However, Operation Chammal was launched almost at the same time as the latter, on September 19, 2014. It represents the French component of the international Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR), bringing together 80 countries and five international organizations. Its primary purpose: to provide military support to Iraqi forces engaged in the fight against Daesh.
Today, the loss of influence of the Islamic State in these territories has limited the action of the coalition. For example, no ground operations have been carried out since January 2022. But some 600 French soldiers are still deployed there. Because if Daesh no longer has a territorial hold in Iraq and Syria, the terrorist threat there remains high. The coalition’s support is therefore mainly focused on increasing the skills of Iraqi forces, in order to establish the conditions for a lasting peace.
To this end, France and its military work according to two complementary pillars: support and advice. For the first, in addition to the 600 soldiers deployed, the coalition can count on 10 Rafale*, positioned on air bases in the Levant and the United Arab Emirates. These fighters directly support the troops on the ground, carry out intelligence and reconnaissance missions, and occasionally strikes in the event of an emergency. They often maneuver in interoperability with Jordanian or Iraqi F-16s and American F-15s.
A maritime component of Operation Chammal is also ensured by the almost continuous presence of a frigate in the Eastern Mediterranean or in the Arabo-Persian Gulf. The action of these French fighters is supplemented by that of aircraft which carry out refueling and airborne command missions. Since 2014, Operation Chammal has thus given rise to some 12,700 aerial sorties and more than 1,570 strikes which have destroyed 2,400 targets, according to figures from the Ministry of the Armed Forces.
the coalition is also distinguished by a mission of advising and supporting the Iraqi operations command in its mission to stabilize the region. This collaboration has enabled Iraqi units to expand their tactical skills and develop their operational autonomy, the ministry boasts.
France plays an important role here: since 2020, it is the Military Advisory Group (MAG), a joint entity, which is in charge of the advisory policy for the benefit of the Iraqi staffs. MAG leads the Joint Operations Advisory Team (Jocat), headed by a French colonel, and which also includes four other French officers, specialized in the fields of deep fires, land operations and air operations.
Very concretely, the role of French soldiers in Iraq is currently confined to training Iraqi troops. Sergeant Baptiste Gauchot also officiated with them “in the fields of infantry combat and combat first aid”, indicates the Ministry of the Armed Forces. The tricolor soldiers also regularly carry out demining actions. Warrant Officer Nicolas Latourte was thus “mortally wounded on the sidelines of a combat training exercise in an urban area”, while training Ukrainian soldiers in the fight against improvised explosive devices.
*The Rafale is a production of the Dassault group, owner of Le Figaro.
