Still many unanswered questions about the death of Private Rooney in Lebanon

There are also issues closer to home that need to be dealt with.

Unanswered questions include those raised around the vehicles, communications, and navigation systems the Defence Forces were using in Lebanon at the time.

They also include questions around operating procedures related to convoys and pre-departure briefings.

Also at issue is to what extent were all the soldiers in the two-car convoy fully briefed about dealing with so-called "denial of movement" incidents.

There had been at least six of these incidents — where Unifil vehicles had been stopped by groups of unidentified men — in southern Lebanon in just over a year before Pte Rooney’s vehicle was stopped.

While the Lebanese authorities are being left to deal with the criminal element of what happened on the night of December 14, 2022, everything else is down to the UN and the Irish Defence Forces.

To date, the best version of events centres around what happened after Pte Rooney arrived at a southern Lebanese checkpoint on the night of December 14, 2022, at about 10pm.

Not far from the coast, it is a point at which Unifil’s area of operation ceases and where troops normally stretch their legs and have a break.

Both vehicles had arrived there, carrying a number of men who were due to fly home from Beirut Airport.

One of those was Trooper Shane Kearney, from Cork, who was travelling with Pte Rooney on what is known as an “administrative run”.

The two-hour trip was from Irish Camp Shamrock, near At-Tiri, about 13km from the Israeli border, to Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport.

In the two years before the convoy set out, Hezbollah had reportedly been busy establishing what the US think tank, The Atlantic Council, later described as “a new and visible military footprint” in the heart of Unifil’s area of operations.

They had even managed to establish their own firing ranges in southern Lebanon.

As a result, members of the paramilitary organisation and supportive locals were always likely to be nervous when they saw any military vehicle.

As a result, Unifil troops usually stuck to set routes, drove closely together and also maintained regular radio contact — especially if travelling without a Lebanese Armed Forces escort.

The trip from Camp Shamrock takes about 25 minutes to get to the outskirts of the coastal city of Tyre, and before moving straight up along a stretch near the coast to the airport.

From Tyre, it takes about 15 minutes to get to the checkpoint at the River Litani, and it was at this point that things started to go very wrong.

While both sets of men got back in their vehicles to carry on to Beirut, only one of the two vehicles moved off at about 10.26pm local time.

This was the lead vehicle, in which Pte Rooney’s senior officer Captain David Kelly was in.

The Irish Examiner has been told Pte Rooney could not move because his vehicle had failed to start after its onboard electronic counter measures, used to jam radio waves to prevent remote detonation of improvised explosive devices, had been turned on.

While it was on, it interfered with the vehicle’s electronic key.

The electronic counter measure (ECM) had been configured before Pte Rooney’s vehicle had left Camp Shamrock, and nobody in his vehicle knew how to operate it properly because, according to sources, they had not been trained in how to do so.

As well as jamming the electric key, it is understood the ECM also prevented Pte Rooney using onboard Defence Forces radio communications.

If they had been trained in how to bypass the ECM’s jamming capabilities, they would have known there was usually a specific frequency to allow troops to use their radio.

The drive from the checkpoint to a junction that leads onto the main Highway 51 into Beirut is four minutes up a straight piece of road.

Peacekeepers normally then take a sharp right at a roundabout, cross over Highway 51, and then take a slip road before heading north to Beirut.

The Irish Examiner has been told the senior captain David Kelly has told investigators he believed Pte Rooney was behind him.

This is because a vehicle with the same — or similar — headlights followed him from the checkpoint.

Capt Kelly is only understood to have realised Pte Rooney was not behind him at 10.44pm, 18 minutes after he last saw Pte Rooney and his colleagues.

Up to that point, he and his men were oblivious to the equipment struggles of their colleagues — struggles they eventually overcame.

After a period of time, Pte Rooney and his colleagues managed to get their vehicle working, and they pulled away from the checkpoint, back up that four-minute stretch of road towards the junction and that sharp right turn to get onto Highway 51 to Beirut.

But instead of taking the same route as Capt Kelly, Pte Rooney drove straight past a sharp turn right.

He drove up the Adloun section of the old coast road, past a service station, before he passed the town of Saksakieh after about 11 minutes, before going to the town of Sarafand.

It is from around here, according to local media reports, that Pte Rooney’s vehicle was followed for a period by men on mopeds.

One of them is understood to have attempted to approach his vehicle.

The soldiers — who were all armed — would have been told in this scenario not to stop, to keep windows shut and keep going.

However, another source has since alleged a routine face-to-face briefing that usually happened between new peacekeepers and local Lebanese civilians had not happened.

In these briefings, peacekeepers are advised on how to de-escalate various situations.

Word is said to have spread among locals about a “suspicious” vehicle in the area, as it now drove towards the next available junction onto Highway 51, near the town of Al-Aqbieh.

At 10.50pm, contact was finally made between the two vehicles via their respective WhatsApp accounts, it is understood.

Capt Kelly had to radio through to Camp Shamrock and ask for a private number for anyone in Pte Rooney’s vehicle.

He is understood to have later told his superiors he again spoke to his second-in-command and one of the four in Pte Rooney’s vehicle at 11.20pm.

At some stage in his attempt to get to Pte Rooney, Capt Kelly’s vehicle suffered a puncture and stopped.

They are understood to have heard shots being fired and — believing themselves to be under fire — ducked for cover in nearby fields.

Moments before Capt Kelly and his colleagues’ vehicle had to stop, Pte Rooney and his colleagues had arrived in or near al-Aqibiyah.

A crowd of at least 30 people are understood to have surrounded the vehicle and it was stationary for an amount of time, according to mobile phone videos shot from apartments overlooking the street.

However, Pte Rooney drove away from the crowd as attempts to break into the vehicle succeeded in opening the back of his vehicle.

Video of what happened next shows the vehicle swerving past a group of people near a junction of two roads between Sarafand and al-Aqibiyah, which is a known stronghold for the paramilitary organisation Hezbollah.

The vehicle appears to collide with a parked car and then is driven up the main street out of the village and on the Baisariyeh road towards Route 51, just a few minutes away.

As the vehicle leaves, however, a volley of shots can be heard being fired at and into the vehicle from behind.

It is understood at least two gunmen — allegedly linked to Hezbollah — fired at the vehicle.

It is clear from the video its tailgate was down and the back of the armoured vehicle was exposed.

Moments later, it collided with a pylon and crashed into a shop.

Trooper Kearney sustained serious injuries.

The men were tended to by paramedics from the Risalah Scouts Ambulance service before being rushed to nearby Raai Hospital, 12 minutes away.

Members of the Lebanese Armed Forces were very quickly on the scene, immediately securing the soldiers’ weapons, their ID cards and name badges, their bags and other luggage, and even their watches.

These were all handed over to the Irish Defence Forces later and it was ascertained none of their weapons had been discharged at any point during or after the initial confrontation.

Lebanese soldiers were placed outside the entrances to the hospital — which was described as being in a state of “chaos” at the time — to ensure the safety of the wounded soldiers inside.

They also stood guard outside each of the rooms where the soldiers were.

One of those rooms contained two soldiers who had escaped serious injury.

Someone who spoke to them shortly after their arrival later described them as being in a state of shock and very concerned for their safety and for the welfare and whereabouts of their colleagues.

They were unaware Trooper Shane Kearney had sustained extremely serious head injuries when the vehicle had overturned.

They were also unaware Pte Rooney’s body was laid out in another room nearby.

Unifil completed what is known as an administrative report in January 2023, which is understood to have concluded Pte Rooney’s death followed “a series of unfortunate situations”.

This report was then sent to the United Nations in New York, where there was then a board of inquiry convened, and it then produced another report.

Other reports have also been written by gardaí, the Lebanese Armed Forces, and the Defence Forces.

However, neither the UN or the Unifil reports are full investigative reports. They are instead reviews on protocols and procedures.

As a diplomatic source with knowledge of the Pte Rooney case has pointed out to the Irish Examiner, the UN’s board of inquiry is a review of administrative procedures and whether or not proper administrative processes were followed.

Among the documents that were provided to the Irish government last year was an unredacted version of this report.

The diplomatic source said: “The reports and annexes amounted to several hundred pages.

“The BOI report was provided without redactions, as was the case in 2023, although the annexes to that report were redacted, consistent with the redactions made to the Unifil investigation reports.” 

Pte Rooney’s family have only seen a smaller folder of heavily redacted documents they were not allowed to take away with them.

No sooner had the Rooney family lawyer Darragh Mackin raised issues around the lack of information provided to the family, than a fresh inquiry was suddenly announced by the Government last November.

This inquiry, led by senior counsel Michael Delaney, will look into how — among other things — Defence Forces personnel are trained and briefed, how convoys are planned and how standard operating procedures worked in this case.

The launch of the inquiry may in time help establish what failings occurred.

Both the Defence Forces and the Department of Defence were asked about issues of concern around Pte Rooney’s death, but they said “it would be inappropriate” for them to comment due to the ongoing inquiries by both the Dublin Coroner and Mr Delaney.