It is understood the bullet-proof glass and armour plating blocked the vast majority of shots and that the rounds that killed Pte Seán Rooney entered through an open tailgate at the back of the UN vehicle.
Preliminary investigations into Wednesday’s attack suggest the tailgate of the Unifil vehicle was opened as an angry mob surrounded the vehicle in the coastal village of Al-Aqbieh after it took a wrong turn off the standard route between the UN area of operations and Beirut airport.
It is as yet unclear if the fatal shots were fired before or after the crash but Defence Forces officials are treating the attack as a targeted attempt to murder the occupants. Only Pte Rooney suffered gunshot wounds. Trooper Kearney received serious head injuries in the crash and two other Irish soldiers received more minor injuries and have since been discharged from hospital.
The Defence Forces investigation is being led by Irish military police with the support of two Garda detectives from the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation and a Garda ballistics expert. Separately, Unifil officials have made unofficial contact with Hizbullah to request its co-operation and assistance in the investigations, according to defence sources.Hizbullah has been increasingly critical of the actions of Unifil in the area of late, leading to several confrontations between locals and peacekeepers. One focus of the investigations is whether Hizbullah played a role in inciting or directing the attack. It has denied any involvement.
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