Hezbollah lashes out at Lebanese judge for alleging group linked with UN peacekeeper’s death

By BASSEM MROUE
Associated Press

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s Hezbollah has lashed out at a Lebanese judge for alleging members of the militant group were behind the killing of a U.N. peacekeeper last year. Hezbollah’s chief spokesman said Friday that the powerful militant group “had absolutely no relation to the incident.” The comments by Hezbollah came a day after Lebanon’s military tribunal charged five men with last year’s killing of an Irish peacekeeper in Lebanon’s south, a stronghold of the Iran-backed group. The indictment alleges all five men are linked to Hezbollah. The charges follow on a half-year probe into an attack on a U.N. peacekeeping convoy in Lebanon’s south, Hezbollah’s stronghold. The shooting resulted in the death of 24-year-old Irish soldier Pvt. Seán Rooney.