Irish soldiers serving in southern Lebanon have been targeted again – just months after the murder there of Private Sean Rooney, it has emerged.
The Irish Mirror has confirmed that an Irish UN jeep from the unit that replaced slain Pte Rooney’s battalion last month was surrounded by an angry crowd for more than an hour.
We have established that cars were also used to hem in the Armoured Utility Vehicle – and that members of the crowd attacked the jeep.
READ MORE: Tragic Irish soldier Sean Rooney honoured at United Nations ceremony
READ MORE: Private Sean Rooney who was killed in Lebanon honoured at PDFORRA conference
And the Irish hero who commanded the jeep when the attack took place and got his soldiers back to base uninjured last night told The Irish Mirror: "It could have been a lot worse. Everyone came back safe."
Corporal Jakub Kowalczyk (26) from Clonakilty in west Cork, added: "My job is to bring all my troops back to their families."
The incident happened in recent weeks, shortly after the 122 Infantry Battalion took over last month from the 121st - the unit in which Pte Rooney was serving when he was murdered on December 14.
Army bosses confirmed the attack – which the Defence Forces calls a Denial of Freedom of Movement, or DFOM incident – to The Irish Mirror team that is currently on a visit to Irish HQ, Camp Shamrock in southern Lebanon.
The camp is home to 338 Irish soldiers, who are tasked with protecting a ceasefire between Israel and armed group Hezbollah – who fought a bloody battle in southern Lebanon in 2006.
The mission includes patrolling an area of southern Lebanon that has become increasingly volatile in recent weeks – and the Battalion commander last night told us that the situation was tense and unstable.
Lieutenant-Colonel Cathal Keohane said that his soldiers knew things could blow up without warning.
He said: "We need to be aware that in an instant, everything can go from very benign and a calm situation to a very tense, to a very dangerous situation.
"Our job here is to ensure that number one we are prepared for that and number two we try and avoid that in so far as we can control that situation and number three if it does happen that we react appropriately."
When asked could a situation flare up in a matter of seconds, the senior officer replied: "Literally immediately.
"A situation may develop and it will be an individual or a couple of individuals acting (alone) but very quickly there is a phone call made and the situation can escalate to having 15, 20, 30 irate individuals adjacent to a patrol."
He also agreed that this six-month mission was more edgy than previous battalions.
He said: "This is my second deployment here and the assessment was more stable on my previous trip.
"People who have more experience than me would equally say the situation has deteriorated and there is a tension in the air.
"That is understandable from the point of view of the locals. People are scrambling to survive, people are trying to meet their basic needs. This is a conflict zone. You add all of that into the mix and people are on edge.
"There are some people who have quite a hard line understanding of UNIFIL and there are others who take a far more benign view of it."
But he added: "We have the very best of people here, guys who are making sacrifices, who are away from their families, who are training hard to ensure that they can look after each other, to ensure that if somebody is in trouble, that the reaction is swift, the reaction is appropriate and it is decisive."
Lt-Col Keohane also paid tribute to Corporal Kowalczyk and the other soldiers caught up in the jeep attack – and praised their professionalism.
He said: "It is not a nice experience for those involved.
"The people who were involved in the incident did exactly the right thing at the time. They fell back on their training, they reacted appropriately, they tried to engage with the individuals and they attempted to deescalate the situation.
"I spoke with the guys when they came back in and they were shook, there is no doubt about it, but the very first comment that the patrol commander said was 'the training works'.
"His actions gave me huge faith in his ability."
Corporal Kowalczyk told The Irish Mirror his unit was on a patrol in the Irish area of operations which is close to the dividing line between Israel and Lebanon when it was targeted.
He said: "We were going about our business, we were going to conduct a patrol.
"We were going through an area and as I said we got denied freedom of movement. These things happen.
"It is expected, it was what we train for.
"It is something we expected and it is something that does happen.
"But the lads in the car were great – as long as everyone is calm everything flows."
When asked how many people were involved in the attack in which their jeep suffered damage, the corporal replied: "I would say 15-20 people and multiple vehicles.
"It could have been a lot worse. Everyone came back safe.
"My job is to bring all my troops back to their families.
"It has been drilled into us from the initial training. You know what you are looking for and you know what is happening immediately."
The corporal also said he was too busy concentrating on his job during the incident to be afraid.
He said: "I was too busy to be frightened until I came back to the camp with all my troops, that was when it kind of sank in what happened.
"When you come back from something like this it kind of makes you realise how good you have it at home.
"I will be proud once the mission ends and we all come back in one piece. That’s my priority.
"It’s part of our job really. That’s what we signed up for. You gotta deal with those things."
He also said he and his team had not been affected by the attack and had been out on multiple patrols since the incident.
Meanwhile, soldiers from the 122 Infantry Battalion yesterday held a sombre ceremony at a memorial to commemorate Irish soldiers who died keeping the peace there since 1978.
The name of Pte Rooney has recently been added to the memorial – the 48th soldier to go on it.
Five people have been charged with Pte Rooney’s murder – Hezbollah denies a judge’s allegation it was involved in that fatal gun attack.
Lt-Col Keohane told us the murder of Pte Rooney affected everyone in the Defence Forces.
He said: "Our hearts went out to his family, our condolences rest with them.
"Knowing that we were going to prepare the next unit, we very much resolved that everything we could do to prevent that, we would – as every unit does coming out here
"It just made it a little bit sharper, more clear for us.
"Priority number one is the safety and security of everyone - and the mission will only be a success when all arrive back home in Ireland."
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