An Irish UN peacekeeper was killed and several others wounded after unidentified attackers opened fire on a convoy in southern Lebanon, Irish and Lebanese military officials said Thursday.
The Irish Defense Forces said in a statement said that a pair of armored vehicles carrying eight Irish UNIFIL peacekeeping troops were fired at as they drove north, toward Beirut, Tuesday night from the town of Al-Aqbiya.
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The Irish military added that one of the three wounded soldiers is in serious condition. It did not identify the assailants. UNIFIL confirmed that one peacekeeper was killed and three were wounded.
Video: Irish soldier killed on UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon / Reuters
"Our thoughts are also with the local civilians who may have been injured or frightened during the incident," UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti said, adding that "details are sparse and conflicting." Tenenti added that UNIFIL is coordinating with the military and trying to "determine exactly what happened."
The soldiers were on what Irish Foreign and Defense Minister Simon Coveney said was considered a standard run from UNIFIL's area of operations in south Lebanon to Beirut when the incident happened in Al-Aqbiya late on Wednesday.
"The two armored vehicles effectively got separated. One of them got surrounded by a hostile mob, I think that's the only way you could describe them, and shots were fired. Unfortunately, one of our peacekeepers was killed," Coveney told Irish national broadcaster RTE.
"This was not expected, yes there has been some tension on the ground between Hezbollah forces and UNIFIL in recent months but nothing like this."
The convoy carrying eight personnel was traveling to Beirut as two of the members were returning to Ireland on compassionate leave following the death of family members, Irish defense forces chief of staff Seán Clancy told RTE.
The second soldier remains in critical condition in a UN-managed hospital having undergone surgery, Clancy said.
The two other soldiers in the vehicle are being treated for minor injuries while the remaining four personnel from the other vehicle were not injured. The UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon said it was coordinating with the Lebanese armed forces and had launched an investigation.
"At the moment, details are sparse and conflicting," UNIFIL said in a statement. Lebanon's caretaker premier Najib Mikati expressed his deep regret over the incident and called for an investigation, urging all parties to "show wisdom and patience".
The Lebanese army offered its condolences but did not give additional details on the incident.
A senior Hezbollah official said an "unintentional incident" had led to the death of an Irish soldier on a UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, saying the armed group was not involved. Wafiq Safa told Reuters his party offered its condolences "after the unintentional incident that took place between the residents of Al-Aqbiya and individuals from the Irish unit," and urged the party not be "inserted" into the incident.
Coveney, in New York for a UN Security Council meeting, said he will meet UN Secretary-General António Guterres later on Thursday to discuss the incident. Irish peacekeepers have been in Lebanon since 1978 and it is the first Irish fatality there in two decades, Coveney said.
"We're all very shocked and deeply saddened, it is a reminder to us of the extraordinary sacrifices that our peacekeepers make on a constant basis," Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin told reporters in Brussels.
Martin expressed his condolences in a statement on Twitter. "It is a reminder that our peacekeepers serve in dangerous circumstances, at all times, in the cause of peace," he said.
Cell phone videos circulated online show one of the two UNIFIL vehicles speeding to leave the area while it was shot at. Some residents were visible filming the incident. Another showed the vehicle had rolled over after crashing into the aluminum shutters of a building, with a wounded peacekeeper on the ground beside it.
Scuffles between southern Lebanon residents and UNIFIL troops are not uncommon. In January, unknown perpetrators attacked Irish peacekeepers in the southern town of Bint Jbeil, vandalizing their vehicles and stealing items. The residents accused them of taking photographs of residential homes, though the UN denied this.
UNIFIL was created to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon after a 1978 campaign against terrorists. The UN expanded its mission following the 2006 war, allowing peacekeepers to deploy along the Lebanon-Israel border to help the Lebanese military extend their authority into their country's south for the first time in decades. That resolution also called for a full cessation of Israeli-Hezbollah hostilities, which has not happened.
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