The Lebanese military judiciary just charged seven people with firing at a UNIFIL patrol and killing one of its members.
On December 14th, Irish UN peacekeeper Private Sean Rooney was killed and three others were injured in a shooting attack near the village of Al-Aqbiya in Lebanon.
A judicial official had stated that suspects have been identified in the premeditated attack, in which the UN patrol was followed and monitored by armed men in a car.
One of the injured peacekeepers, Shane Kearney, has been flown to Ireland for emergency surgery.
The area is known to be a stronghold of Iranian-backed Hezbollah. Despite denying involvement, Hezbollah did eventually hand over one of the suspects.
Hezbollah has continued to build an aggressive sentiment toward UNIFIL among its following. Just a few months, Hezbollah‘s leader Hassan Nasrallah publicly criticized allowing UNIFIL to operate in Lebanon freely, even equating it to an occupation.
The attack has prompted calls for a swift investigation by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which was established in 1978 to monitor the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon and act as a buffer between the two countries.
