BEIRUT: A wounded Irish UN peacekeeper in Lebanon was transferred on Wednesday from a hospital to Beirut’s international airport to be medically evacuated to Ireland.
Unidentified attackers opened fire on 22-year-old Pvt. Shane Kearney and three other Irish soldiers with UNIFIL, the UN’s peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, last week as their convoy passed near the southern town of Al-Aqbiya. The area is a stronghold of the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group.
Kearney suffered from blunt force trauma to the head in the attack, and is in serious but stable condition.
24-year-old Pvt. Seán Rooney was killed, while the two other soldiers were lightly wounded. Rooney’s body was returned to Ireland on Sunday after Lebanon and the UN held a memorial for him. A security official told The Associated Press that Rooney was shot in the head.
Lebanon, Ireland, and the United Nations are holding separate investigations into the attack, but have yet to share any findings or issue any arrest warrants. The official told the AP that investigators had retrieved seven bullets from the vehicle.
The Irish military in a statement Wednesday said Kearney will be evacuated in a “specially equipped medical aircraft” to Casement Aerodrome, a military base southwest of Dublin, and will continue his treatment at Beaumont Hospital.
UNIFIL was created to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon after a 1978 invasion. The UN expanded its mission following the 2006 war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, allowing peacekeepers to deploy along the Israeli border to help the Lebanese military extend its authority into the country’s south for the first time in decades.
That resolution also called for a full cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, which has not happened.
Earlier Wednesday, Israeli troops lobbed smoke bombs at Lebanese soldiers and residents in the southern Lebanese border town of Al-Hamames, as they set up barriers and barbed wires near its frontier.
Wounded Irish peacekeeper will be evacuated from Lebanon
https://arab.news/gwv9v
Wounded Irish peacekeeper will be evacuated from Lebanon
- 24-year-old Pvt. Seán Rooney was killed, while the two other soldiers were lightly wounded
- Rooney's body was returned to Ireland on Sunday after Lebanon and the UN held a memorial for him
US envoy calls for ceasefire deal in northeastern Syria to be maintained
- Tom Barrack, ambassador to Turkiye and special envoy for Syria, reiterates Washington’s support for Jan. 18 integration agreement between Syria’s government and Syrian Democratic Forces
LONDON: Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkiye and special envoy for Syria, on Monday reiterated Washington’s desire to ensure the ceasefire agreement in northeastern Syria between Syria’s government and the Syrian Democratic Forces continues.
In a message posted on social media platform X, he wrote: “Productive phone call this evening with his excellency Masoud Barzani to discuss the situation in Syria and the importance of maintaining the ceasefire and ensuring humanitarian assistance to those in need, especially in Kobani.”
Barzani has been the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party since 1979, and served as president of Kurdistan region between 2005 and 2017.
The current present, Nechirvan Barzani, previously welcomed a recent decree by the Syrian president, Ahmad Al-Sharaa, officially recognizing the Kurdish population as an integral part of the country.
Barrack reiterated Washington’s support for efforts to advance the Jan. 18 agreement between Syria’s government and the SDF to integrate the latter into state institutions. The SDF is a Kurdish-led faction led by Mazloum Abdi that operates in northeastern Syria and recently clashed with government forces.
On Saturday, the Syrian Arab News Agency reported that the Syrian Ministry of Defense had announced a 15-day extension of the ceasefire deal.
