The Irish Government has asked the United States military to remove the Irish tricolor flag from the website which promotes the US-led military campaign against the so called Islamic State in Syria and Iraq (ISIS).
The Irish flag appeared alongside 60 other nations' flags, images of fighter jets and battle scenes of Operation Inherent Resolve, the United States intervention against Islamic State. The Irish flag was removed within five days.
Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs told the Irish Times that Ireland “has not and will not” participate in international military action against ISIS.
They continued, “Our flag should not be used in this context and we are following up.”
When asked about Ireland’s part in Operation Inherent Resolve a spokesman for the US Central Command (Centcom) told the Irish Times that Ireland made “important contributions” and was considered “an important part” of the group.
According to a Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman, Ireland belongs to a coalition of 67 states formed in Sept 2014. The role of the group is to coordinate on a number of fronts, including military operations, halting the flow of foreign fighters, cutting off Islamic State’s access to funding and providing humanitarian relief. Members are not expected to contribute to all aspects of the campaign. Ireland’s Department of Defence said no Irish Defence Forces personnel are involved.
The Operation Inherent Resolve website states that “In the summer of 2014, a new terrorist group which had risen during the chaos of the Syrian Civil War attacked across the Syrian-Iraqi borders and seized large swaths of Iraqi territory in the Euphrates River Valley and northern Iraq. Several Iraqi towns fell to the invaders, who called themselves “The Islamic State.” By the end of summer, it seemed that Baghdad itself was threatened by IS.”
Their mission is defined as a “Combined Joint Task Force – Operation INHERENT RESOLVE (CJTF-OIR), by, with and through regional partners, is to militarily defeat DA’ESH in the Combined Joint Operations Area in order to enable whole-of-coalition governmental actions to increase regional stability.”
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