Army Rangers to travel to Kabul to help Irish citizens escape Taliban
Defence Forces including the Army Ranger Wing conducting a major exercise in Dublin.
Irish special forces are to be deployed to Afghanistan to extract and repatriate Irish citizens trapped in the war-torn country.
An Emergency Consular Assistance Team (ECAT) is being deployed to Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA) in Kabul, to assist the remaining Irish citizens who wish to leave Afghanistan.
Defence Forces personnel including members of the elite Army Rangers Wing who have previously conducted training exercises in Kabul will be part of the team, along with officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Ten Irish citizens have already been evacuated through HKIA with the assistance of the Department of Foreign Affairs at the Embassy in Abu Dhabi.
The remaining citizens requiring assistance are mainly family groups.
On Twitter, Simon Coveney said: "Just met senior officials and (Defence Forces).
"I’ll tonight approve the sending of a small team of diplomats, supported by Army Rangers, to Kabul Airport.
"They’ll work with our (international) partners on the ground to assist in (the) evacuation of remaining Irish citizens."
Just met senior officials & DF. I’ll tonight approve the sending of a small team of diplomats, supported by Army Rangers, to Kabul Airport. They’ll work with our int partners on the ground to assist in evacuation of remaining Irish citizens. @dfa @IRLDeptDefence @defenceforces
— Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) August 23, 2021
The deployment has been approved by Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence Simon Coveney on the joint recommendation of the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Defence.
Minister Coveney said: “Good progress has been made to date in evacuating Irish citizens from Afghanistan.
“My view is that further progress requires a short deployment of a consular team to HKIA. The security situation for citizens attempting to access the airport remains extremely volatile.
“Citizens should continue to follow the consular advice given to them directly by our Embassy in Abu Dhabi.”
It has been welcomed by military and ex-military figures.
One - the former Army Ranger Wing officer Cathal Berry - said: "It’s better late than never, it should have been done last week. It makes sense."
The Kildare South TD added: "With all the good intentions of other international militaries in Kabul, there are no better people to extract Irish citizens than Irish soldiers themselves because you are more motivated to get your own people out.”
The deployment won't be the first time the ARW has been in Afghanistan.
ARW personnel served in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) there from October 2006 to March 2007 and from September 2014 to March 2015.
They also participated in the follow-on mission, Resolute Support Mission (RSM).
Deputy Berry said the ARW are specialists in this area: “This operation is called a Non-Combatant Emergency Operation or NEO and the ARW would be training for these every year.
"Not only do they conduct exercises, but they do have contingency plans in place so they can customize to any country in the world.
"They have experience from 2011 in the extraction of Irish citizens from Libya through Malta and also Sharon Commins in 2009, a GOAL worker taken hostage in Darfur.
"They were involved in that. They are the ideal outfit.”
He said the big problem so far with the evacuation effort was that there were no Irish people on the ground in Kabul Airport.
“These rescue operations are successful if we have people to liaise locally – that is the key component that has been missing," he said.
"The liaison function is the most important role.
"They will be a hand-picked team, including a communication specialist, with encrypted satellite radios, you’ll have medical specialists and other specialists.
“Their job is to facilitate the two diplomats to facilitate the extraction of the Irish citizens.”
