Irish soldier dies in Liberia crash

A member of the army’s elite ranger wing has died in a road accident while serving with the United Nations’ peace enforcement mission in Liberia.

The Defence Forces today named the man as 33-year-old Sergeant Derek Mooney, who was unmarried and from Blackrock, Co Dublin.

Another soldier was injured in the crash and is being treated on a hospital ship offshore.

Sergeant Mooney had been in the Irish army for 16 years and had previously served overseas with the UN in Lebanon, East Timor and Honduras.

The men were on a routine familiarisation patrol, when their jeep, which was part of a convoy, left the road south of the capital, Monrovia.

The Irish troops are part of an advance party sent to Liberia last week to set up a base for the main group of 430 soldiers, who will take up duty in the first few weeks of December.