Lebanon: UNIFIL incident leaves 1 dead, investigation underway
Al Mayadeen EnglishDec 15, 2022
Private Séan Rooney, an Irish member of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), serving in the country's south near the Israeli border, was killed on Wednesday after his armored vehicle came under fire. Three other Irish peacekeepers were injured in the attack.
Irish Defense Minister Simon Coveney reported that two armored patrol vehicles were on a standard administrative trip to Beirut but they got separated — one of them was surrounded and attacked by what he characterized as a "hostile mob."
This was an avoidable tragedy. The unintentional incident that led to the death of the Irish soldier came as the UNIFIL vehicle did not take the highway route but rather took the sea route and ran over a group of angered young men from the al-Aqibiya region who tried to stop the vehicle. An investigation must scrutinize why soldiers failed to follow the convoy and passed in this area of Beirut.
All the current evidence suggests that this was a preplanned attack, most likely in response to UNIFIL slightly changing how it operates in south Lebanon. Considering that Hezbollah has a strong presence in the area and essentially runs its de-facto separate state in the south, it would not be surprising if Hezbollah was behind this. It would not be the first time the group has come into conflict with UNIFIL either.
There's a 1% chance that Lebanon will come under French rule again before 2025, according to the Metaculus prediction community.