ALBAWABA - A Lebanese military tribunal charged seven people for killing an Irish U.N. peacekeeper on duty in the southern part of the country, according to local media.
On Dec. 14, Private Sean Rooney was killed and three others wounded when their military vehicle came under fire in the Al-Aqabiya area, which is under the influence of the Hezbollah group.
Lebanese media outlets, including Al-Joumhouria newspaper and LBC, said that the government commissioner to the military court, Judge Fadi Akiki, on Thursday charged seven people, including one in police detention, for the attack on international forces in the south of the country. The other six are at large and were tried in absentia.
Akiki charged the defendant with premeditated murder, and the six others in absentia with attempted murder, shooting menacingly and causing damage to the military vehicle.
The multinational United Nations peacekeeping force has been deployed in southern Lebanon since 1978. Its primary objective is to maintain security in the region and monitor a cessation-of-hostilities agreement.
Following the 2006 war between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah, the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon was tasked with ensuring the implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which called for a cease-fire between warring sides and an Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon.
