Lebanon Accuses 5 of Killing UN Peacekeeper

Facts

• A Lebanese military court charged five men on Friday for the killing of Séan Rooney, a 24-year-old Irish soldier deployed last year with the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), after the armored convoy in which he was riding came under fire while traveling to Beirut.¹
• An anonymous senior judicial official told the Associated Press that all five accused men are linked with Hezbollah, a powerful Iranian-backed political party and armed group. Recordings from the confrontation allegedly include the gunmen saying that they were with Hezbollah.²
• Hezbollah has denied any involvement in Rooney's killing. Ten days after the Dec. 14 shooting, Hezbollah handed over Mohammad Ayyad to Lebanese authorities, saying that the man was a supporter of the group but not an official member.³
• CCTV footage from the scene of Rooney's death reportedly "clearly shows the patrol being attacked by armed men from all sides." Ayyad, one of the five facing charges of "intentional homicide," has been in detention since being handed over.⁴
• Since Rooney's death — the first killing of a UNIFIL soldier since 2015 — a spokesperson for Hezbollah has claimed that the group has played a substantial role in reducing tensions and encouraging cooperation with the army and judicial investigation.⁵
• UNIFIL was deployed to south Lebanon in 1978 to monitor the withdrawal of Israeli forces after Israel invaded the country that same year. The region is generally considered to be one of Hezbollah's key strongholds.⁶

Sources: ¹BBC News, ²Al Jazeera, ³The National, ⁴The Times of Israel, ⁵Reuters, and ⁶Guardian.

Narratives

• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Al Mayadeen. This was an avoidable tragedy. The unintentional incident that led to the death of the Irish soldier occurred because the UNIFIL vehicle did not take the highway route but the sea route, and then 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 into this area of Beirut.
• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Times. All evidence suggests that this was a preplanned attack, most likely in response to UNIFIL adjusting 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 the group turned out to be behind this; it would not be the first time it has come into conflict with UNIFIL.

Predictions