In the trenchesIsrael army in late August saved Irish troops from al-Nusra Jihadists on Golan Heights

Israel Defense Force (IDF) on 30 August helped rescue Irish soldiers serving with the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) on the Golan Heights. The rescue required the IDF to direct heavy fire at Syrian Jihadists to prevent them from approaching the Irish contingent.

The Irish Independent quotes Israeli military sources who said the Irish soldiers would have been killed or taken captive if it were not for action taken by the IDF.

The Irish soldiers were engaged in a mission to save dozens of Filipino soldiers, also member of UNDOF, who were surrounded by hundreds of Jabhat al-Nusra Islamist militants.

The IDF, using its observation posts and aerial intelligence, guided the Irish soldiers so they could avoid concentrations of the heavily armed al-Nusra forces. The IDF fired on the al-Nusra units to prevent them from interfering in the rescue of the Irish soldiers.

In late August, al-Nusra captured Filipino and Fijian soldiers from the UN force. Forty Filipino peacekeepers managed to escape from al-Nusra captivity, and were taken to safety by the Irish contingent, but forty-four Fijian soldiers remain in the hands of the Islamist insurgents.

The Independent reports that al-Nusra announced it would try the men under Sharia law. Al-Nusra’s announcement enraged the Filipino military, which charged that the UN has instructed the Fijian members of UNDOF to surrender to al-Nusra rather than try and fight their way out. The Filipino military said its soldiers would have had a better chance of saving their lives by trying to cross into Israel rather than surrender to the Islamists in the hope that they would treat their captives according to international norms.

The 130 members of Ireland’s Defense Forces returned safely to Ireland on 8 October after seven tense months on the Golan Heights.