The Ditch can reveal that Ireland’s most secretive military unit trained with American special forces days before the US began bombing Iranian schoolgirls.
Soldiers from the Irish Defence Forces Army Ranger Wing completed a three-week urban warfare course with the US Army Special Forces, known as the Green Berets, in North Carolina last month.
The US Department of War published images and video footage of armed Irish rangers training alongside their US counterparts at Fort Bragg late last month – with their course including “enhanced” firearms training.
The Green Berets were deployed this month to the Middle East as part of the US-Israeli war on Iran that began on 28 February and has killed hundreds of schoolchildren.
The Irish Army Ranger Wing is the “elite special operations unit” of the Irish Defence Forces whose membership is open only to serving soldiers.
Fine Gael defence minister Helen McEntee has been contacted for comment.
