An investigation into a fire fight involving Irish troops in Syria last week has found the troops were deliberately ambushed by armed elements and that an armoured vehicle they were in was extensively damaged when it struck a land mine.
Defence Forces chief of staff Lieut Gen Conor O'Boyle said while he could not be certain the Irish did not wound or kill any militia when they opened fire, his feeling was there had been no casualties during the incident last Thursday. "There would have been evidence of a medical evacuation or other signs," he said.
Speaking at the annual conference of the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers in Co Wicklow last night, Lieut Gen O’Boyle said the Irish equipment had worked and the troops’ training had been followed to the letter.
“At the moment we see absolutely no reason whatsoever to question our deployment on the Golan,” he said, stressing that the decision to deploy or withdraw would always be one for Government, albeit informed by military advice. “Nobody in the Defence Forces, in the department or in the Minister’s office was under any illusion but that there was a potential for putting our soldiers in harm’s way in the Golan.”
A party of 36 Irish troops travelling in five armoured personnel carriers was fired on, with their vehicles hit but not penetrated. They returned fire from heavy machine guns on the vehicles and as they withdrew one of the vehicles hit a land mine and had a wheel blown off.
Near misses
The incident occurred at the village of Ruihinah, about 25km from the Irish camp in the Golan Heights. It followed a number of near misses last month when Irish troops saw artillery shells explode close to their vehicles in the crossfire of fighting in the civil war between the Syrian army and armed groups trying to overthrow the Assad regime.
Lieut Gen O’Boyle said it was not known how many rounds of gunfire had hit the vehicles in the latest incident.
Asked if he was concerned that Irish troops serving with the UN in Syria were now seen as legitimate targets by anti-regime armed groups, he said: “We don’t know they see us a target. We don’t see any reason why the armed elements would target the UN in the Golan.”
