Lebanon accuses five over killing of UN peacekeeper Sean Rooney
Al JazeeraDec 26, 2022
The 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.
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.
The Spin
Establishment-critical narrative
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
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.
