UN and Lebanon hold memorial for killed Irish peacekeeper

By KAREEM CHEHAYEB
Associated Press

BEIRUT (AP) — The Lebanese army and U.N. peacekeepers have held a memorial at Beirut airport for an Irish soldier killed in southern Lebanon last week. U.N. peacekeepers on Sunday stood by 24 year-old Pvt. Seán Rooney’s coffin after it had arrived from a hospital the southern city of Sidon. His body was then transferred to a military carrier to be taken back to Ireland. Rooney was killed in a shooting attack by a mob of residents near the southern town of Al-Aqbiya on Wednesday night, as he and seven other Irish peacekeepers from U.N. peacekeeping mission, known as UNIFIL, were on their way to the Beirut airport. A security official told The Associated Press that one of the unknown attackers shot Rooney in the head.