The Mission: 48th Infantry gets ready for the Golan Heights

Two months before the men and women of the 48th Infantry Group travel to the Golan Heights, an officer who served there last year tells them of one of his experiences in the field: a simultaneously exciting and alarming tale

The officer telling the story – who does not wish to be named – has lengthy UN experience, with service in the Middle East, Afghanistan and Africa. But Undof (the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force) “was the most real mission that I’ve ever had the pleasure of serving on”, he tells the officers of the 48th.

In August 2014, things got really dangerous. Insurgent forces launched a major offensive on the Bravo Line side in Syria proper, the eastern flank of the UN’s buffer zone. They were seeking to push further north from their stronghold in the south. In response, the Syrian Army installed themselves near UN observation post 56 (UNP56).

August 28th was when the “shit hit the fan”, as the officer puts it. Seven anti-government groups, including former al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra, swept west into the buffer zone to al-Quanytirah, close to Undof headquarters in Camp Ziouani. The town included a major Syrian army position in a former hospital building which was overrun. And, in the first attack against a UN position, 45 Fijian UN soldiers were captured by the insurgents.

Further south within the zone, more than 70 Filipino UN troops in posts UNP68 and UNP69, were surrounded by 300 insurgents and under attack.

“The Filipinos were under strict instructions that under no circumstances were they to surrender and hand over weapons. So we were told then to prepare to go down and relieve them.

To get to UNP80, the officer and his troops had to travel west from Camp Ziouani, through Israel’s Technical Fence barrier and into Israeli-occupied Golan, then south towards UNP80 and east again, back through the Israeli fence and through the Alpha Line into the buffer zone.

At 5.50am on Saturday, August 30th, the officer was told to mobilise the quick reaction force and rescue at least 32 Filipinos trapped inside UNP69 and under attack since Thursday.

‘Go in hot’

The tactic was to “go in hot” – there would be no negotiating with insurgents, no UN softly-softly. He had two options: plan A – “basically it was to get in and chase away the bad guys”; or plan B – “to cut a hole in the fence and evacuate that way”.

He called everyone together in UNP80 and issued a detailed plan of action. They headed north along a dirt track that hugs the Israeli Technical Fence. Among his six Mowags was a Cavalry reconnaissance vehicle, the most high-tech of the armoured personnel carriers available to Irish troops with Undof.

“I had allowed about 25 minutes to get there, 15 minutes for the extraction and 25 minutes back.”

Directional mines

UNP69 is just south of the village of Burayqah. Insurgents had placed directional mines on the main gate and anti-tank mines immediately in front of the post. About 100m away from the gate, a row of T55 tanks had a commanding, elevated position.

“When we got there, there was about seven anti-government forces at the gate. We came up to position; [a soldier] came up and said there’s anti-government forces at the main gate and I told him engage straight away. What happened was they were actually withdrawing, at which point we fired warning shots over their heads and they ran.

“They left at least one RPG [rocket propelled grenade] behind them, and a number of machine guns. I was told afterwards that the Filipinos had three guys lined up to shoot the guy with the RPG should he pick it up.”

The Irish officer ordered several of his troops to dismount and start cutting through the perimeter fence of UNP69 while others sought to deal with the mines; both achieved their objectives at about the same time. As the last piece of wire was cut, the coil sprang back and one of the soldiers got caught up in it, losing his cutters as he scrambled to free himself.

As the trapped Filipinos streamed out of the besieged post and clambered into the UN vehicles, a group of insurgents followed them. The Irish officer ordered his soldiers to fire warning shots. Bullets were hitting the ground, spitting up dust as the Filipino soldiers fled the post but none was hit.

As the patrol began to withdraw, it came under fire from the direction of Burayqah. The Irish patrol fired back. One insurgent dropped his gun immediately and surrendered; the other crashed into a wall.

“The most serious contact we had actually was when we withdrew,” continued the officer. “I was in the third-from-rear car, and I could see this motorbike following us and as I was saying, is that guy following us? next thing my gunner said, ‘shit, he’s firing at us’. The eejit was actually there, with a machine gun, on his motorbike, firing away at us from behind.

‘Kept on firing’

“So the guy, again in Five Charlie [call sign for one of the Mowags], and I subsequently recommended him to the force commander for a force commander’s commendation, fired two bursts of machine gun fire to get the guy to back off. The guy refused to – kept on coming, kept on firing. So the corporal then said to me that he fired 10 shots.”

Afterwards the officer asked the corporal what had happened. The corporal replied: “Well, the guy fell off the bike and that was the end of that.”

Surreal

The officer describes the rescue as “the most surreal experience of my life”.

“There was 10 hours which were really the best 10 hours of my army career, without a shadow of a doubt. We were actually doing what we train to do . . . For those 10 hours, I had an absolute clarity of vision which I’ve never, ever had before.

“It verified that the training – the cliche – kicks in. And everything else becomes unimportant.”

When the patrol and its rescued Filipino colleagues got safely back inside UNP80, “it was like a party” even though everyone there was on full alert.

“Ten minutes later, I got a phone call: ‘Mount up, you’re going again’ [and] that was the start of the next experience.”