Live UpdateFrom the Liveblog of Thursday, January 5, 2023

Lebanon charges 7 people over deadly attack on UNIFIL peacekeeping force

By AFP 5 January 2023, 3:53 pm 0 Edit

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)

Lebanon has charged seven people for participating in an attack against United Nations peacekeepers that killed one Irish soldier in mid-December, a judicial official tells AFP.

Private Sean Rooney, 23, was killed and three others were injured on December 14 when their UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) vehicle was attacked near the village of Al-Aqbiya in the south of the Mediterranean country, a stronghold of the powerful Iran-backed Shiite group Hezbollah.

Only one of the seven charged is in custody, Mohammad Ayyad, who was handed over to the army by Hezbollah last month.

Ayyad has been charged “with killing the Irish soldier and attempting to kill his three comrades by shooting them with a machine gun,” the official says, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The judge also charged six fugitives “for uttering threats with an illegal weapon, destroying the UNIFIL vehicle and intimidating its passengers,” the official adds.