A booby-trapped drone operated by the Islamic State (IS) extremist group has killed two Kurdish fighters and badly wounded two French soldiers in northern Iraq.
A Kurdish defense official told Reuters that the drone exploded when Peshmerga fighters tried to pick it up after it had crashed to the ground.
The incident occurred on October 2 in Irbil, the capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan regional government.
French newspaper Le Monde reported on October 11 that the French soldiers were operating with Kurdish Peshmerga fighters when the drone exploded.
Le Monde said one of the French soldiers was "between life and death." Both have been flown back to France for treatment.
IS militants have been reported to have tried to use drones to launch attacks on at least two other occasions in the last few weeks.
In reaction, the U.S.-led coalition and Iraqi pro-government forces have been warned to treat any type of small flying aircraft as a potential bomb, according to The New York Times.
