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BEIRUT, Lebanon — Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group has handed over a person suspected of killing an Irish United Nations peacekeeper earlier this month, a safety official informed AFP on Sunday.
Non-public Sean Rooney, 23, was killed and three others injured on December 14 when their UN Interim Drive in Lebanon (UNIFIL) automobile was attacked close to the village of Al-Aqbiya within the nation’s south, a stronghold of the Iranian proxy.
UNIFIL acts as a buffer between Lebanon and Israel and operates close to the border.
“The primary shooter has been arrested by safety forces after Hezbollah handed him over hours in the past,” the safety official mentioned, declining to be recognized as a result of he was not approved to talk to the media.
It was not instantly clear if the person arrested was a member of the group.
Hezbollah is cooperating within the probe led by Lebanese navy intelligence, the official mentioned, including that “preliminary investigations are almost full.”
UNIFIL peacekeepers attend a repatriation ceremony for Irish soldier Sean Rooney who was killed on a UN patrol, at Beirut’s worldwide airport, on December 18, 2022. (ANWAR AMRO / AFP)
Earlier this week, a judicial official informed AFP that Lebanese investigators had recognized suspects within the assault, including that there have been “at the least two” shooters.
A automobile carrying armed males adopted the UNIFIL automobile, the judicial supply had mentioned, citing preliminary findings and calling the assault “premeditated.”
Hezbollah has repeatedly denied involvement within the incident, and its safety chief Wafic Safa has described the killing as “unintentional.”
Witnesses mentioned villagers within the Al-Aqbiya space blocked Rooney’s automobile after it took a street alongside the Mediterranean coast not usually utilized by UNIFIL.
Al-Aqbiya is simply exterior UNIFIL’s space of operations, the power has mentioned.
The three passengers had been injured when the automobile hit a pylon and overturned.
Through the years, there have been quite a few incidents between Hezbollah operatives and UN peacekeepers, however they’ve hardly ever escalated.
UNIFIL has demanded a “speedy” investigation into the assault, the motives of which stay unclear.
It’s the first loss of life of a UNIFIL member in a violent incident in Lebanon since January 2015, when a Spanish peacekeeper was killed by Israeli hearth throughout an armed conflict between the Israel Protection Forces and Hezbollah.
Lebanese troopers stand behind a broken UNIFIL automobile on the scene the place a peacekeeper convoy got here underneath gunfire within the Al-Aqbiya village, south Lebanon, December 15, 2022. (AP/Mohammed Zaatari)
UNIFIL was arrange in 1978 to watch the withdrawal of Israeli forces after they invaded southern Lebanon in reprisal for a Palestinian terror assault launched from the world. The power consists of almost 10,000 troopers.
Israel withdrew from south Lebanon in 2000, however fought a devastating 2006 battle with Hezbollah and its allies.
Lebanon and Israel stay technically at battle.
Occasions of Israel employees contributed to this report.
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