The Irish Army Ranger Wing (ARW) operators and other Defence Forces and Government officials are deployed to the Middle East to execute a “Non-Combatant Evacuation Operation.” The goal is to repatriate the infamous Islamic State supporter Lisa Smith and her young daughter.
Who is Lisa Smith?
Lisa Smith (38) has become publicly known after she left Ireland several years ago. She traveled to Tunisia and then to Syria, where she joined up Islamic State and married one of its militants, a later killed man. Following the loss of most of the Islamic State’s territory, Lisa Smith was kept in a refugee camp in northeast Syria. She fled the camp last month with her daughter and walked north before being picked up by a Turkish-backed militia.
Lisa Smith (born c. 1981) is a former Irish soldier who converted to Islam and later traveled to Syria during the Syrian Civil War to join the terrorist militant group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) during the Syrian Civil War. Born in Dundalk, she was a member of the Irish Army before transferring to the Irish Air Corps in 2011, but quit following her conversion to Islam.
Her last known whereabouts are somewhere close to Syria’s border with Turkey, where she is reportedly held captive by a Turkish-backed militia. A delegation from the Department of Foreign Affairs, alongside Army Ranger Wing, who is reportedly providing security and protection, has been deployed to Turkey’s border area to facilitate the return of Lisa Smith and her daughter to Ireland, where she may face charges for aiding a terrorist group.
No comment
Members of the Army Ranger Wing (ARW), the Irish Army’s special forces arm, also have there to provide possible security advice, sources have confirmed. The move was first reported in this morning’s Sunday World newspaper. A spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs declined to comment this morning, citing its policy of not commenting on individual cases.
