Leb Army, Hezbollah cooperation lead to UNIFIL shooting suspect arrest

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
25 Dec 2022 21:00

The Lebanese security services conducted their investigations into the incident and submitted their reports to the judicial authorities.

Lebanese army forces with UNIFIL units on the scene of the incident

Al Mayadeen correspondent reported that the Lebanese army, in cooperation with Hezbollah, arrested a suspect involved in the shooting incident at the Irish UNIFIL force in the town of Al-Aqibiya in southern Lebanon.

This comes days following the opening of investigations into the incident and in light of the arrest of more suspects and hearing more witnesses.

The Lebanese army was able to benefit from CCTV footage taken of the UNIFIL's vehicle route in southern Lebanon.

The Lebanese security services (the Information Branch of the Internal Security Forces, the Information Service of the Lebanese General Security, and the State Security Agency) conducted their investigations into the incident and submitted their reports to the judicial authorities.

On December 15, Al Mayadeen correspondent in Beirut reported that "a UNIFIL vehicle was involved in a traffic accident at night in the town of al-Aqibiya near Saida, after the townspeople protested against the patrol's conduct that changed its usual route."

"The incident resulted in the vehicle flipping and the injury of 4 UNIFIL members, who were taken to Hammoud Hospital in Saida," he said, stressing that "UNIFIL forces fired in the air in response to the protest of the people."

Following the incident, UNIFIL announced in a statement the death of one of its members and the injury of others.

Furthermore, the Irish Defense Forces, on their end, announced in a statement that "an Irish soldier from the United Nations peacekeeping mission was killed in Lebanon," on Wednesday night, December 15.

The soldier "was killed when the convoy of two armored vehicles came under small arms fire."

Reuters reported earlier that a senior Hezbollah official, Wafiq Safa, said the "unintentional incident" led to the Irish soldier's death, stressing that Hezbollah is not involved in this incident whatsoever.

Safa explained that the Lebanese Resistance party offers its condolences "after the unintentional incident that took place between the residents of Al-Aqibiya and individuals from the Irish peacekeeping unit."

To conclude, Safa urged that Hezbollah not be "inserted" into the incident, reaffirming that the party had nothing to do with the tragic incident.