Irish Army Rangers go to Kabul to help evacuation

A group of Irish diplomats and members of the Irish Defence Forces are to be sent to Afghanistan to help evacuate its citizens.

Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said he had approved "the sending of a small team of diplomats, supported by Army Rangers" to Kabul airport.

He said they would work with partners to evacuate Irish citizens.

It was reported last week the Republic of Ireland needed to evacuate 36 of its citizens from the country.

Speaking then about the evacuation, Mr Coveney said sending Irish military personal would "complicate, rather than simplify things".

He had said there were agreements with other countries to make space for Irish citizens.

On Monday evening, the UK's Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the country had "hours now, not weeks" to evacuate people from Afghanistan.

Ben Wallace said troops would leave Kabul's airport when the US withdrew, which is due to happen on 31 August.

At an emergency meeting of the G7 on Tuesday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to ask President Joe Biden to extend the US presence to allow more evacuation flights to take place.

A spokesman for the Taliban said it would not support a deadline extension.

Suhail Shaheen said an extension would mean extending Afghanistan's occupation, and warned of consequences if that were to change.

In a statement on Monday, a spokesman for the Irish Defence forces said: "Óglaigh na hÉireann (the Irish Defence Forces) does not comment on specific operational deployments."