Irish Defence Forces Personnel in Afghanistan

...I thought the front page article was of more interest...

Flying wrote:

They have been their since ISAF started, a token unit of Ruperts that stay in a compound and get a medal to say they were in Afghanistan. I saw them there and are as much use as a handbrake in a canoe.

In a nutshell Ruperts go there to get a few months away from Ireland as a break, they have Zero Operational use as do the 1 or 2 Senior NCO's that are there !

Taliban using IRA bomb techniques in terror war
Sunday Independent, June 03 2007
JIM CUSACK


TERRORIST bomb techniques perfected in Ireland by IRA engineers and electronics experts have spread to theTaliban in Afghanistan, and the Irish Defence Force's unique know-how in dealing with the devices is being shared with peace-keeping forces there.

A senior Army Ordnance Corps officer has been appointed head of training in bomb-disposal techniques with the 5,000-strong International Security Assistance Force. One of seven Irish soldiers in Afghanistan, he is in charge of training the NATO-led forces and the Afghan National Army and police in dealing with the developing threat of improvised bombs.

Devices and bombing techniques almost identical to those used by the Provisional IRA in the North have reached Afghanistan via Al-Qaeda in Iraq who, in turn, learned the same techniques from other Middle Eastern terror groups such as the PLO and Hizbollah who trained with the IRA in Lebanon.

Among the techniques that have already been used in the war-torn region include the "proxy bomb", used to devastating effect in the North in October 1990 when a kidnapped catering worker, Patsy Gillespie, was forced to drive a van bomb to the British Army checkpoint on the Border outside Derry.

Since last year several "vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices" (VBIEDs) have been used in Afghanistan, having been used widely before in Iraq. In March this year one such bomb was detonated outside Jalalabad next to a convoy of US Embassy officials, injuring five officials. In January last year another such attack killed 21 civilians in Kandahar Province.

Until recently all such attacks have been simply defined as suicide bombings, but more recently the NATO forces have discovered that, as in the North, the drivers are often forced to transport the bombs after their families have been held hostage. They are deceived into thinking they simply have to park the vehicle and leave it to detonate but, instead, the bomb is detonated by remote control by bombers following in another car.

Another technique developed by the IRA that has spread half way across the World to Afghanistan is that used to kill 18 British soldiers at Narrow Water, outside Warrenpoint in County Down, in August 1979. A "primary" landmine killed several soldiers in a passing lorry, then the bombers waited as medics and other soldiers moved in to their aid, detonating a second bomb hidden on the other side of the road. The same technique was passed on to Hizbollah who used it against the Israeli Defence Forces during the 1980s and 1990s. NATO forces have also found an increasing number of similarities in the bomb-making techniques of the Taliban who are trying to seize control of the troubled country and re-impose Sharia government.

The Army Ordnance Corps officer in charge of training both the NATO and Afghan National Army in countering these attacks warned last week that the tactics andtechnology being used by the Taliban was becoming even more deadly. "We'll see an increase in the technology," he told a training course in Kabul last week.

A Defence Forces spokesman yesterday said the army ordnance officer was one of eight Irish officers currently serving in Afghanistan. Ordnance officers are not named because of the sensitive, high-risk nature of their work.

Flying wrote:

Irish Army EOD officers barely get out of bed in the morning, it is usually the NCO's in the EOD that actual do the real work.

You will find that Irish EOD Officers are the ones that do the EOD work.

Now wake up and stop dreaming, it's 1751 on a Sunday.

I'm sure every contribution in this manner, regardless of size, is greatly appreciated by the rest of the ISAF forces in Afghanistan. Also a very telling contribution politically.

I wonder if Irish soldiers on a broader scale would be interested in going to Afghanistan? Especially those who sign up for frontline roles such as Infantry or Cavalry, surely going to war zones and fighting a hardened enemy is what they signed up for and wanted to do during their service?

I wonder if their is a general desire among PDF troops for the Irish role in Afghanistan to be expanded?

SIRREX wrote: »

Not what the Irish Army is about. Anyone who joined the DF expecting to be involved in fighting hardened enemies, as you put it, is guilty of a severe lack of research

I suppose thats true and is why significant numbers of young Irish men are deciding to enlist in the British forces as opposed to the PDF currently. However, I'm sure there are many who do simply join to experience the life of an infantryman for example as opposed to being ready to defend Ireland in the most extremely unlikely of circumstances that a foreign nation acts aggressively towards Ireland.

Also, you used the phrase "as I put it" suggesting you would have worded it differently. I'm not sure where you are coming from there. Those who enlist in the British Army (from all over Britain and the commonwealth and of course Ireland) are fully aware they will more than likely experience the most testing war zone since Korea. To many that is at the heart of their decision to join.

I'd eat Mary Byrne's beef curtains for a chance to go to A'Stan with the DF.

LondonIrish90 wrote: »

I wonder if Irish soldiers on a broader scale would be interested in going to Afghanistan? Especially those who sign up for frontline roles such as Infantry or Cavalry, surely going to war zones and fighting a hardened enemy is what they signed up for and wanted to do during their service?

I wonder if their is a general desire among PDF troops for the Irish role in Afghanistan to be expanded?

I'd eat Mary Byrnes beef curtains through Poccington's arse to get over.