Defence Forces Review 2008

Defence Forces Review 2008
had already suffered fatal wounds, the Irish UN contingent had stood up to Haddad in its first
real test of force; if it had not done so, At-Tiri would not exist today. Yet here was UNIFIL
headquarters about to punish 46 Infantry Battalion for its success.
Worse was to come. The court of inquiry was called by Erskine and would be presided over
a Canadian Officer from the UN Disengagement Observer Force on the Golan (UNDOF).
But it was then learned in Tibnin that on the board of that court would be none other than the
psychopathic Major Saad Haddad. Lieutenant Colonel Jack Kissane, commanding officer of
46 Battalion, took the only honourable step available to him by stating that no member of the
Irish battalion would take part in the inquiry.
Thus far did UNIFIL go to appease its tormentors. At-Tiri was now relatively quiet, though
visited by a two-man UN truce supervision organisation (UNTSO) team – Team Xray –
comprising a French officer and an American, Major Harry Klein. The Irish were now faced
with the task of resupplying their isolated ‘hostage’ observation posts behind Haddad’s lines,
fully aware of the fact that Haddad had already formally warned Erskine that there might
be ‘reprisals’ for the killing of his militia men at At-Tiri, a threat that presumably prompted
Erskine’s shameful proposal for a court of enquiry.
On 18 April three Irish soldiers, Privates Thomas Barrett, Derek Smallhorne and John
O’Mahoney, set off for Observation Post Ras in the company of the two man UNTSO Team
Xray led by Klein and Steve Hindy, a reporter from the American Associated Press News
Agency. The group, all unarmed, were supposed to have been met at Bayt Yahum by one of
Haddad’s minions Abu Iskandar. Klein said that Abu Iskandar wasn’t there: Abu Iskandar
said later that he was. In any event, Klein decided to continue the mission without the Haddad
escort, a decision which in the circumstances, was extremely rash. Shortly afterwards, the six
were ambushed by gunmen and taken to Bint Jubayl where the three Irish soldiers were beaten
up. O’Mahoney shot in the back, thigh and foot, managed to escape. Klein was pushed around
but not badly hurt and later watched as Smallhorne and Barrett, white-faced with fear, were
bundled into a car and driven away.
Within about an hour, the two Irish soldiers were stood against a wall and machine gunned
to death. Mohamed Barzi from the village of Blida was believed to have done most of the
shooting, although UNIFIL later heard that ‘Abu Shawki’, the Israeli Shin Bet agent in Bint
Jubayl, attended the execution. Five years later I met ‘Abu Shawki’ when he questioned me in
the early hours of the morning in a Tyre hotel. When I asked the Israeli if he was with Barrett
and Smallhorne – without further identifying the two soldiers or mentioning their murder – he
replied to me: ‘you are dirt’. Klein later told me that he kept asking himself if Smallhorne and
Barrett would be alive had he, Klein, done more to prevent their abduction in the car. ‘If I had
grabbed a gun, would they dared to have shot an American’ Klein asked. But, as one of my
colleagues told me, he chose not to do so.
In the Irish area of operations that night, there were murderous thoughts although none
were publicly expressed. Indeed, the only open evidence of anger came in response to an
unnecessary and demeaning message from Erskine asking the Irish battalion not to retaliate.
My notes record that Lieutenant Colonel Kissane made the following statement: ‘we are a
38