The Lebanese Army, in coordination with the powerful armed group Hezbollah, arrested a suspect over the weekend who recently killed an Irish UN peacekeeping force, two security sources and a Hezbollah spokesperson said.
The man is a supporter of the Iran-backed armed group and the heavyweight political party, but not a member of the group, a Hezbollah spokesperson told Reuters news agency on Monday.
According to security sources, the man was suspected of firing shots at a United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) vehicle that drove through southern Lebanon on December 15.
Sean Rooney, 23 years old, was killed and three others injured on December 14 — one of whom was in critical condition — when their UNIFIL vehicle was attacked near the village of al-Aqbiya in the south of the country.
It was the first deadly attack on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon since 2015.
“The main gunman was arrested by security forces after Hezbollah extradited him hours ago,” a security official said, declining to be identified as he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Die
Hezbollah has officially denied involvement in the incident and described the murder as an “unintentional incident” that took place exclusively between residents of the city and UNIFIL.
The two-vehicle convoy was carrying eight people and was traveling to Beirut when two of the members returned to Ireland on friendly leave, said Chief of Staff of the Irish Armed Forces Seán Clancy. The remaining four employees in the other vehicle were not injured.
According to eyewitnesses, villagers in the al-Aqbiya area blocked Rooney’s vehicle after it took a road along the Mediterranean coast that is not normally used by UNIFIL.
Al-Aqbiya is located just outside UNIFIL’s area of operation, the force said.
The three passengers were injured when the vehicle crashed into a pylon and tipped over.
On December 16, Ireland’s then Minister of Foreign and Defence Simon Coveney told Irish state broadcaster RTE that he accepted Hezbollah’s assurances that it was not involved.
“We won’t accept any assurances until we’ve completed a full investigation to find out the full truth,” he said.
peacekeepers
UNIFIL has been working in Lebanon since 1978 to maintain peace on the border with Israel. It was expanded following a UN resolution that stopped the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
There have been a number of incidents between Hezbollah supporters and UN peacekeepers over the years, but they rarely escalated.
UNIFIL has urged Beirut to ensure a rapid investigation into the first violent death of one of its peacekeepers in almost eight years.
The force was set up to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli forces after they invaded Lebanon in retaliation for a Palestinian attack.
Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000 but was involved in a devastating war against Hezbollah and its allies six years later.
Lebanon and Israel remain technically at war, although they settled a long-standing maritime border dispute in October.