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A U.N. peacekeeper in southern Lebanon was shot and killed Wednesday night time when the armored car he was in got here beneath gunfire in an incident that’s beneath investigation.
The peacekeepers, a part of a United Nations mission deployed alongside the Lebanese border with Israel, weren’t on patrol on the time of the episode, which occurred outdoors their space of operations within the south.
Pvt. Seán Rooney, a member of the Irish battalion, was pronounced lifeless on arrival on the hospital.
Seven different peacekeepers have been touring with him from southern Lebanon to Beirut. One other peacekeeper is in severe situation and two others acquired minor accidents.
The United Nations Interim Power in Lebanon, or Unifil, has been deployed in Lebanon since 1978. Its mandate was expanded to patrolling the border after the 2006 conflict between Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, and Israel.
“In the meanwhile, particulars are sparse and conflicting,” the U.N. drive mentioned in a press release. It’s investigating the killing in coordination with the Lebanese Military.
Greater than 10,000 U.N. peacekeepers from 48 international locations patrol and assist hold the peace alongside the 75-mile frontier between Lebanon and Israel, generally known as the Blue Line.
The Blue Line is a demarcation set by the U.N. to verify Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000, ending its 15-year occupation of southern Lebanon.
The border between the 2 international locations, who stay in a declared conflict with one another, stays unresolved and in dispute, making the realm a tense, and at instances harmful, place with outbreaks of battle often flaring.
The realm is lined with minefields and barbed-wire fencing and surveilled by drones with the Lebanese Military and Hezbollah on one aspect and Israel on the opposite.
“We’re in a peacekeeping mission and a peacekeeping mission is by nature in an space surrounded by a unstable scenario and instability,” mentioned Andrea Tenenti, the Unifil spokesman. “However within the final a number of months the scenario in south Lebanon has been calm, and we haven’t suffered any incidents.”
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Non-public Rooney’s killing is the primary since 2015 when a Spanish peacekeeper was killed by Israeli hearth throughout clashes between Israel and Hezbollah.
Since 1978, 335 Unifil peacekeepers have been killed or died whereas deployed in Lebanon, together with of pure causes.
Southern Lebanon is a Hezbollah stronghold, however a bunch spokesman mentioned that they had nothing to do with the incident.
The spokesman, who spoke on the situation of anonymity to debate particulars of the assault, mentioned the episode concerned native villagers and one of many two Unifil peacekeeping automobiles. The U.N. car drove off the primary freeway because it was heading north and into the village of Al-Aqbiya, south of the coastal metropolis of Sidon, round midnight, he mentioned.
Residents stopped the car and questioned the peacekeepers about why they have been there, the spokesman mentioned (Al-Aqbiya is outdoors their patrol space). Because the car drew an even bigger crowd, tensions rose and a few of the residents started hitting the car, he mentioned.
The car rammed two residents, wounding them and sending them to the hospital, he mentioned.
After the ramming, one man opened hearth on the car, killing the peacekeeper.
“Let’s await the investigation to be concluded as a result of there are too many sensitivities and it’s higher to get a correct understanding of the occasions and what led to the incident,” Mr. Tenenti mentioned in response to Hezbollah’s account.
Lebanese officers condemned the assault and urged a radical investigation into the incident.
“Aggression towards members of the peacekeeping forces won’t cross with out accountability,” Lebanon’s inside minister, Bassam Mawlawi, wrote Thursday on Twitter.
“Preserving their security is an obligation primarily based on our absolute perception within the significance of implementing worldwide resolutions,” he mentioned on Twitter.
Hwaida Saad contributed reporting from Beirut
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