Brashit, where Pte William Kedian was killed yesterday by a mortar fired from an Israeli-controlled position overlooking the town, is one of the most troubled positions along the southern Lebanese border.
Three other Irish soldiers, Cpl Fintan Heneghan, Pte Thomas Walsh and Pte Mannix Armstrong, were killed there in March, 1989, when they were caught in a landmine blast. Two other soldiers, Pte William O'Brien and Cpl Dermot McLoughlin, were killed there in December 1986 and January 1987.
The town is just outside what the UN terms the Israeli-Controlled Area (ICA) and has been the frequent scene of artillery exchanges between the Hizbullah's Islamic Resistance Army and the Israeli Defence Forces and their surrogate force in the region, the South Lebanon Army (SLA).
Shell fire from the SLA compound overlooking Brashit has had a devastating impact on the town and its surrounding countryside, populated by poor Shia Muslim farmers.
Every building in Brashit has been shelled or bombed in the past two decades of conflict. SLA artillery frequently fires straight through the local secondary school. As a result, there is constant repair work going on the town.
The people, many of whom have a haunted, slightly detached manner, tenaciously cling to their homes and small holdings despite the attrition. Yesterday morning was like many others, with the Hizbullah launching an attack on the SLA compound. The Hizbullah are well armed and trained and have overrun SLA compounds on several occasions. Two weeks ago the Hizbullah launched one of its biggest attacks, hitting 14 compounds simultaneously and overrunning three. It captured and took away an Israeli armoured personnel carrier from one of the compounds.
However, the Hizbullah attacks on the compounds are generally acts of armed harassment. When it does take a compound it quits almost immediately because once the Israeli Defence Forces learn that one of their compounds has been taken by the Hizbullah, they direct artillery fire into it from other compounds.
Yesterday morning the Hizbullah was engaging in a harassment exercise rather than any attempt to take Brashit compound.
The Hizbullah fighters were 500 metres from the Irish post, over a ridge, when they fired a bazooka followed by bursts of automatic rifle fire. The SLA compound should have quickly ascertained there was no fire coming from the area of the Irish post. However, firing from a distance of about one kilometre, the SLA directed three mortars directly at the post. Two landed on the perimeter and the third struck directly in the centre of the post, killing Pte William Kedian and seriously injuring Pte Ronnie Rushe.
The death and the manner of the attack deeply angered senior UN figures who suspect - though they are not saying so officially - that the SLA is now deliberately targeting UN posts. Four posts in the Irish UN Battalion area have been struck so far this year by fire from Israeli-controlled compounds.
On February 7th, two other Irish soldiers, Pte John Flaherty and Cpl Noel Roche, had a remarkably lucky escape when another mortar struck the Irish post at Haddathah, about three miles from Brashit. Fire from SLA position also struck Irish posts on May 17th, May 25th and on a number of occasions between February 13th and 16th.
There are rules of engagement, entered into by all sides in the conflict in April 1996, known as the April Accord, which forbid firing at or from close to civilian and UN positions. The SLA is now developing a pattern of defying this accord.
The main cause for concern - to both the UN and the civilian population of south Lebanon - is that, as the withdrawal of Israeli troops approaches, there will be increasing conflict.