BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati said on Friday that those responsible for the killing of an Irish soldier on a UN peacekeeping mission two days ago “will be punished.”
One soldier was shot and killed late on Wednesday and a second was in a critical condition after a hostile crowd surrounded their armored vehicle in Lebanon’s south, Ireland’s defense minister said on Thursday.
Ireland’s foreign and defense minister Simon Coveney said two vehicles belonging to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and traveling through south Lebanon got separated before the shots were fired.
The caretaker prime minister said the investigations into the incident were on, while Lebanon’s foreign ministry late on Thursday said Coveney had offered to send an Irish delegation to help the probe.
Mikati and Lebanon’s army commander were at the southern Lebanon headquarters of the UNIFIL on Friday to pay their respects. He said Lebanon remained committed to a 2006 UN resolution that expanded the peacekeeping mission’s presence.