BEIRUT — Reports about the release of the main suspect in the killing last year of an Irish peacekeeper in southern Lebanon are raising controversy, as tensions escalate between Israel and Hezbollah along the Lebanon-Israel border.
Lebanon’s military court released on bail Mohamad Ayyad, who had been detained since December 2022 over his involvement in the killing of Pvt. Sean Rooney, the local Nidaa al-Watan paper reported on Wednesday.
Rooney was killed and another seriously injured when two UNIFIL armored vehicles came under small arms fire in the southern village of al-Aqbiya, a Hezbollah stronghold. In June, the first military investigation judge, Fadi Sawan, charged Ayyad with murder, along with four other suspects who remain at large.
Hezbollah has denied any links to the five suspects. The paramilitary group and the Lebanese army have yet to comment on the report.
The Irish Defense Department said it was aware of the reports on Ayyad’s release.
“The Department has engaged a Lebanese legal firm to represent the interests and concerns of the Irish government at the court hearings, and they will be in contact with the court today to establish the circumstances of Ayyad’s reported release,” a Defense Department spokesman said in a statement.
Reports of Ayyad’s release come as 334 Irish soldiers prepare to join UNIFIL’s 123rd battalion in southern Lebanon.
UNIFIL has patrolled the border with Israel since its establishment in 1978 following the withdrawal of Israeli forces that briefly invaded Lebanon. The mission was amended several times over the years. In 2006, the UN Security Council strengthened UNIFIL’s mandate following the war that Israel and Hezbollah fought for more than a month. Today, some 10,500 peacekeeping forces patrol the area.