Irish soldiers just four minutes from main highway when shooting took place

The spot where the UNIFIL vehicle carrying Private Seán Rooney (left) and Private Shane Kearney crashed is just over 3km from a major junction - and relative safety - onto Route 51. Picture: Óglaigh na hÉireann

Private Seán Rooney and his colleagues were just four minutes from the main highway into Beirut when he was shot and killed.

The spot where they crashed is just over 3km from a major junction - and relative safety - onto Route 51. The junction is positioned where the highway crosses the Zahrani River.

A local shopkeeper, who did not want to be named, said he and other locals in the village are “saddened” by what happened.

"The innocent Irish youth did not commit a sin that would expose him to shooting," he said. “We deal with the peacekeeping forces with love, and we regret and condemn what happened.” 

It has also emerged that there was a similar roadblocking incident to last Wednesday involving UNIFIL personnel who had been lost in the same area. That incident did not, it is understood, end in any casualties.

Asked about this, Defence Forces spokesperson Commandant Gemma Fagan said she was unaware of such an incident but added: “I can confirm that Denial of Freedom of Movement incidents (DFOM) occur in the UNIFIL area of operations in South Lebanon with other contingents and different nationalities in other areas.” 

Incident

Video of the incident shows the UNIFIL vehicle swerving past a group of people near a junction of two roads leading out of the town of Sarafand at around midnight last Wednesday night, and into the village of Al-Aqibiya.

After the white UNIFIL-marked armoured Toyota jeep appears to collide with a parked car, it then appears to travel up the main street out of the village on the Baissariye road towards a major junction, Route 51.

As it leaves, a volley of shots can be heard being fired at and into the vehicle. Moments later, it crashes into a shop and turns over just four minutes from the Route 51 junction.

Earlier in the evening, at around 11.30pm, Private Rooney and his colleagues - who are understood to have been armed - had been in a small convoy of two vehicles with another group of four Irish Defence Forces soldiers.

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They had been travelling along the old coast road up over a bridge over the Litani River - which marks the end of UNIFIL's area of operations - before they were due to take a right turn onto Route 51 into Beirut.

While the lead vehicle is understood to have taken that right turn, the vehicle Private Rooney and his colleagues were in is understood to have carried on straight.

Shortly afterwards, while in the coastal region of Sarafand, they are understood to have been approached by local residents and asked what they were doing.

It is understood the men in the vehicle kept going. By the time their vehicle reached that village, however, a large crowd of around 45 had gathered, and cars were being moved into position to form a roadblock.