Defence Forces Review 2008

Defence Forces Review 2008
complaining of a lump in his side. It looked and felt innocent but we sent him to Naquora to be
sure. They referred him to Sidon where the lump was removed. Everything indicated a simply
benign lesion. However, when I visited him in hospital, I could see that he was not healing. I
began to worry. I arranged to have him sent home early for further tests. What they discovered
in Ireland was that he had one of the rarest and most aggressive forms of cancer. It presented
itself as a simple lymphoma but it killed my friend within a year – a solider and a father in his
early thirties who always smiled and never complained.
December 1988 was the start of a time of vengeance. Jiwad Kasfi was captured by Israeli
Special Forces in Bayt Yuhan, which was just inside the border of the Irish-controlled area.
Kasfi was a high-profile armaments expert who made and primed anti-personnel bombs. A
member of one of the leading Muslim Anti-Israeli groups, he had been held responsible for
the deaths of many South Lebanese, Israelis and at least one Irish officer. His brothers in arms
wanted to blame someone for his capture. And because he had been captured in our area, they
decided to blame us Irish. This led to a terrifying sequence of events which were based on the
age-old doctrine of an eye for an eye.
Firstly, our camp came under attack. It was surrounded and live ammunition was fired directly
into it. In fact, the dentist Fiachra McGinley and doctor Kevin Roberts were in the medical
centre discussing the Geneva Convention (of all things!) when bullets passed right between
them. So much for respect for international law. Later that evening, three Irish soldiers were
hijacked from 6-48at Tibnin East. They were told they were being brought to spend time with
their fellow countrymen – captives Keenan and McCarthy. Thankfully, this never came about.
They were freed with the help of Amal and brought back to the medical centre to recover. One
of them was to go home, never again to return, but the other two chose to stay.
Honour remained to be satisfied and so to the morning of March 21st. Our battalion was
preparing to go home. I was engaged in morning surgery when I heard what I thought was a
sonic boom. With so many Israeli jet fighters flying overhead, this was not unusual. However,
unusual it was to prove to be. The phone rang and I was asked to proceed immediately to 6-42,
where there had been a suspected roadside bomb, exact details unknown. We travelled in the
direction of the telltale brown mushroom cloud in the distance. Carnage awaited us and it was
obvious no one could have survived. We lost three fine soldiers that day – Privates Mannix
Armstrong and Thomas Walsh and Corporal Fintan Heneghan. We might have lost many
more. Just before departing C Company HQ, Commandant Martin Coughlan took six off that
fatal detail, six soldiers who would almost certainly have also been killed.
And, after the incident was investigated, it became apparent that the perpetrators had hoped
for greater bloodshed as their revenge for Kasfi. Not alone were the truck and its personnel
to be targeted, the rescue personnel were supposed to have been targeted too. Another bomb
should have gone off when we came to give assistance. I well remember the Irish lament
by the piper as the mortal remains left for Naquora and the memorial mass in the village
officiated by the Bishop of Tyre. What a price to pay for honour to be satisfied. What a price
to pay for peace.
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