LAST UPDATE | 21 Dec 2022

TROOPER SHANE KEARNEY, who was critically injured in an attack in Lebanon last week, has landed safely in Ireland.

The flight carrying him for a medical evacuation from Lebanon to Casement Aerodrome, Baldonnel landed at 17:40. 

The Defence Forces used a specially equipped, contracted medical aircraft for the flight.

A spokesperson for the Defence Forces said Trooper Kearney is now being transferred by ambulance to Beaumont Hospital to continue receiving medical treatment. 

Trooper Kearney underwent surgery following the attack and in a statement this morning, the Defence Forces said he “is continuing to improve and he remains stable at present”. 

22-year-old Trooper Kearney, from Killeagh in Co Cork, suffered a head injury in the attack in the village of Al-Aqbiya on Wednesday night.

The incident happened when a convoy of two Armoured Utility Vehicles (AUVs) carrying eight personnel from the 121st Infantry Battalion was travelling to the Lebanese capital of Beirut.

Private Seán Rooney (23) was killed in the incident, while two other soldiers received minor injuries but were discharged from hospital on Saturday.  

The soldiers were part of 121st Infantry Battalion, comprising 333 Irish troops, which was deployed in November to south Lebanon as part of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil).

Unifil acts as a buffer between Lebanon and Israel, neighbours which remain technically at war.

The force operates in the south near the border, a stronghold of Iran-backed group Hezbollah.

Hezbollah security chief Wafic Safa has said the killing was “unintentional”.

Private Rooney was the first Unifil member to be killed in a violent incident in Lebanon since January 2015, when a Spanish peacekeeper was killed by Israeli fire.

Three investigations are under way into the attack: one led by the UN, another by the Defence Forces and a third by the Lebanese government.