Body of Irish UNIFIL soldier killed by gunfire in south Lebanon returned home

Sean Rooney, 23, a member of the peacekeeping force along the border between Israel and Lebanon, was shot dead last week in first such death since 2015

By AFP and ToI Staff 19 December 2022, 1:14 pm

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UNIFIL peacekeepers attend a repatriation ceremony for Irish soldier Sean Rooney who was killed on a UN patrol, at Beirut, Lebanon's international airport, on December 18, 2022. (Anwar Amro/AFP)

DUBLIN — The body of an Irish United Nations peacekeeper killed in Lebanon was on Monday returned to Ireland with full military honors.

Private Sean Rooney, 23, was killed and three others were wounded on Wednesday after the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) convoy came under fire near the village of Al-Aqbiya in the south of the country.

One of the wounded, Private Shane Kearney, remains in serious condition in the hospital.

UNIFIL has demanded a “speedy” investigation into the attack, the motives of which remain unclear.

UNIFIL has been in Lebanon since 1978. Composed of nearly 10,000 soldiers, it is deployed in the south of the country as a buffer between Lebanon and Israel, which remain technically in a state of war.

The force operates in the south near the border, a stronghold of Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah.

Hezbollah security chief Wafic Safa has said the killing was “unintentional.”

Lebanese soldiers stand behind a damaged UNIFIL vehicle at the scene where a peacekeeper convoy came under gunfire in the Al-Aqbiya village, south Lebanon, December 15, 2022. (AP/Mohammed Zaatari)

It is the first death of a UNIFIL member in a violent incident in Lebanon since January 2015, when a Spanish peacekeeper was killed as the Israel Defense Forces fired artillery in response to a deadly attack by Hezbollah. Israel said at the time its troops did not fire intentionally at the Spanish soldier.

Israeli forces withdrew from south Lebanon in 2000 but fought a devastating 2006 war with Hezbollah and its allies.