Blue helmet killed in Lebanon: Hezbollah denies involvement of its members

The Lebanese movement Hezbollah denied on Friday (June 2nd) the words of a judicial source reporting the involvement of members of this formation in a deadly attack in December against Irish peacekeepers in the south of the country.

A judicial source told AFP on Thursday, based on an indictment, that five Hezbollah members were accused in the attack. An Irish soldier of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was killed and three others wounded on 14 December when their vehicle was attacked near the village of Al-Aqbiya in southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah has a strong presence.

'We are Hezbollah'

About ten days later, Hezbollah handed over to the authorities a man suspected of being the "main" perpetrator of the attack, according to a security source. The judicial source said Thursday that five people - the man handed over by Hezbollah and four other people on the run - had been charged with "voluntary homicide". Surveillance camera footage near the scene of the attack shows "clearly the patrol attacked from all sides by armed men," the source said. Some of the attackers were "heard saying 'We are Hezbollah,'" according to the indictment read by the source. The court document does not, however, formally state that the accused men belong to Hezbollah.

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Questioned by AFP, a Hezbollah official assured this Friday that "the indictment makes no link with Hezbollah", and said he was surprised by the "statements of the judicial source, while the indictment is clear and explicit". The official, who declined to be named, added that his party "was in no way involved in the issue between the locals and the Irish patrol" in December. On the contrary, "Hezbollah played a major role in easing tensions during the incident. At the time, he had conducted the necessary contacts with the command of the Lebanese army and UNIFIL", and had "encouraged the inhabitants to cooperate with the army and the military justice", he added.

UNIFIL, made up of some 10,000 peacekeepers, has been deployed since 1978 to act as a buffer between Lebanon and Israel, which technically remain in a state of war. There have been incidents in the past between peacekeeper patrols and Hizbullah supporters.