A man has gone on trial in Lebanon charged with the murder of two Irish peacekeepers almost 35 years ago.

Mahmoud Bazzi appeared before a military court in Beirut, accused of murdering Privates Thomas Barrett and Derek Smallhorne.

The Irish soldiers were killed in April 1980 while on a UN patrol in South Lebanon.

Bazzi was deported from the U.S. to his native Lebanon in January.