Apache helicopter parts ‘likely to have been made here’

CRUCIAL components of Apache attack helicopters transported through Shannon Airport in February were likely to have been manufactured in Ireland, an Oireachtas committee heard yesterday.

The helicopters were “efficient killing machines”, Jim Loughran of Amnesty International Ireland told the cross-party Committee on Foreign Affairs.

This was because, unlike some other military helicopters, the Apache did not double up as an air ambulance or vehicle to airlift food supplies, Mr Loughran said. Its only purpose was to serve as a weapon, one which had been used by the Israeli Army to target militants in Gaza and the West Bank, attacks in which innocent Palestinians had been injured or killed.