Government to send special forces to Kabul to aid in evacuation of Irish citizens

The Government is to deploy military special forces to Afghanistan to assist in the evacuation of Irish citizens.

The mission is expected to depart from Dublin on Monday evening or the early hours of Tuesday morning and will comprise a section of the elite Army Ranger Wing and two senior Department of Foreign Affairs officials.

The team will be based in Kabul’s main airport, Hamid Karzai International Airport, where it will coordinate the repatriation of the 36 remaining Irish citizens in the country.

Officials described it as a limited, short-term mission, lasting for a few days, which will focus on liaising with other country’s militaries to secure seats on aircraft for Irish people.

It comes after US president Joe Biden, who last month said all US military operations would end on August 31st, said on Sunday that he “hoped” to stick to the deadline. It is unclear how Kabul airport will operate when US forces leave.

The Irish army personnel, understood to number fewer than a dozen, are unlikely to venture outside the airport. Their main task will be providing security for officials and Irish citizens within the airport.

The mission is expected to depart from Casement Aerodrome over the course of Monday evening or very early on Tuesday, sources told the Irish Times. The team is expected to fly to Paris, France then onto the Afghan capital on a French military transport.

An announcement from Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney is expected this evening. The Minister is currently in Ukraine to open a new Irish embassy there.

To date, 10 Irish people have been evacuated from Afghanistan in small groups with the assistance of other air forces. This includes two people evacuated on Monday.

‘Situation remains volatile’

“The situation remains volatile and access to the airport continues to be a problem,” the Department of Foreign Affairs said.

“Work continues on options for evacuation, the department is in ongoing contact with EU and other partners on the ground in Kabul.”

Over the last week the Defence Force’s General Staff have presented several options to Government on how to assist with the evacuation effort following the fall of Kabul to the Taliban.

Options have been limited by Ireland’s lack of a long-range airlift capability.

As well as sending a team to Kabul, other options included sending the Government jet to Pakistan to assist Irish nationals evacuated there from Kabul. The jet is currently in Kiev with Mr Coveney.

The Army Ranger Wing has been on standby for the past several days awaiting a decision on such a mission.

The Irish team will join special forces from dozens of other countries scrambling to evacuate their citizens. The main obstacle to evacuation is getting citizens to the airport, officials said.

The situation at Kabul International Airport remains highly unstable. On Monday a firefight erupted when Afghan guards exchanged fire with unidentified gunmen, Germany’s military said.

Thousands of Afghans and foreigners have thronged the airport for days, hoping to catch a flight out after Taliban fighters captured Kabul on August 15th.

Twenty people have been killed in the chaos at the airport, most in shootings and stampedes in the heat and dust, with crowds penned in by concrete blast walls, as US and international forces try to evacuate their citizens and vulnerable Afghans.

One person was killed in Monday’s clash, the German military said. CNN said a sniper outside the airport fired at Afghan guards â€" some 600 former government soldiers are helping US forces at the airport â€" near its north gate.

US and German forces were involved in the clash, Germany’s military said. Three wounded Afghan guards were being treated at a field hospital in the airport, it said. Two Nato officials at the airport said the situation was under control after the firing.

The Taliban have deployed fighters outside the airport, where they have tried to help enforce some kind of order. On Sunday, Taliban fighters beat back crowds at the airport a day after seven Afghans were killed in a crush at the gates as the deadline for the withdrawal of foreign troops approaches. - Additional reporting by agencies

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