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Beirut (AFP) – Hezbollah handed over to the Lebanese army the main suspect in a shooting targeting a vehicle of the United Nations Interim Force that killed an Irish member, a security official told AFP on Sunday.
The Lebanese security services had identified the suspects in the December 14th incident in the village of Al-Aqibiya, outside the UNIFIL area of operations, in southern Lebanon, which is a major stronghold of Hezbollah, the preeminent political force with a large military arsenal.
The security official, who asked not to be named because he is not authorized to speak on the matter, said, “The main shooter of the UNIFIL patrol has been arrested by the security services, after Hezbollah handed him over” to the army during the past hours, noting that his handover “came in the context of Hezbollah’s cooperation.” God is with the investigation that the army intelligence is conducting.
He considered that the suspect “may be a partisan (ie, an element in Hezbollah), so the party was able to arrest and hand him over.”
After the killing of the Irish soldier, Hezbollah rushed to offer condolences to UNIFIL. He called, through an official, not to involve him in the “unintended” incident.
From time to time, skirmishes take place between UNIFIL patrols and Hezbollah supporters in the UNIFIL area of operations near the border in the south of the country. But it rarely escalates and the Lebanese authorities quickly contain it.
UNIFIL had asked the Lebanese authorities to expedite the completion of investigations and hold those responsible for the recent incident to account.
UNIFIL did not specify the details of what happened, while the Irish army reported that two armored cars with eight people on board were subjected to “small arms fire” on their way to Beirut.
The incident also resulted in the injury of three other members of the Irish Koutoubia.
A Lebanese judicial source told France Press a few days ago that the patrol was monitored in advance, and was chased “by a car in which gunmen were traveling, and it was harassed and intercepted at two points before it arrived at the scene of the accident,” noting that more than one person participated in the shooting, which lasted for a long time. Seven automatic bullets, one of which hit the dead soldier in the head from behind.
The security official confirmed that “the main suspect is under the control of the investigation,” noting that “the preliminary investigations are nearing completion, and may lead to the arrest of others.”
© 2022 AFP