Two men to be handed over to Lebanese armed forces in relation to Irish soldier's death
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At least two men are expected to be handed over to Lebanese armed forces in connection with the killing of Private Seán Rooney in southern Lebanon on the night of December 14.
Lebanese media is carrying reports that “the person or persons who shot in Al-Aqabiya will be handed over”.
This appears to be on condition that “the investigation must ask about the reason for changing the route of the [convoy] and not communicating with the army command”.
The report has just appeared on the Twitter account for AlJadeed, the leading Lebanese TV channel.
Security sources have confirmed to the that the Lebanese security forces have been provided with the identity of a number of individuals.
Despite the reference in the report to a change of route without telling Lebanese army command, Unifil troops have freedom of movement.
There is, however, un unofficial and informal arrangement that convoys will stick to the old coastal road coming up from the southern part of the country before they then join the main highway into Beirut.
A spokesperson for the Defence Forces said it had "no comment to make while investigations are currently ongoing into this incident.”
The village of Al-Aqabiya, where the incident took place, is regarded as a Hezbollah stronghold.
Shortly after the incident, a spokesperson for the movement had described it as “an unintentional accident between the local people and members of the Irish battalion”.
Private Rooney, whose funeral is taking place on Thursday morning, and his colleagues, who were all serving with Unifil, were just four minutes from the main highway into Beirut when their vehicle was fired on in the village of Al-Aqibiya.
They had become separated from colleagues in another vehicle they had been travelling to Beirut with earlier in the evening, and communications between the two vehicles broke down.
After ending up down remote country roads, they encountered a large crowd that tried to stop them from passing through Al-Aqibiya.
The incident is being investigated by Unifil, the Defence Forces and by the Lebanese armed forces.
The identity of the suspects has not been revealed, but it is understood they are members of or are associated with the Hezbollah organisation.
A security source said: "At least one and possibly two men are to be handed over to the LAF.
"There is widespread embarrassment within the Hezbollah movement for what happened.
"Nobody gave the order to fire on the Irish. The whole incident was unplanned, and it escalated."
They also said that leading members of Hezbollah are expected to meet senior officers and the commander of the Irish battalion in southern Lebanon over the coming days.
"They not only want to pass on their condolences, but they also want to stress that nobody told anybody to fire on the vehicle," the security source added.
"It doesn't excuse what happened but it does offer some explanation, that what happened was an unplanned accident."
Another security source has told the Irish Examiner that Private Rooney was facing his attacker when he was shot.
Reports and video of the incident show bullets being fired into his vehicle by gunmen from within the crowd it was driving away from.
There do not appear to be any shots fired until after Private Rooney's vehicle collides with a parked car as it swerved away from the crowd trying to block it.