Irish Troops Carrying Out Anti Terror Drills At Shopping Centres And Transport Stations

Irish troops are undergoing training in anti terror military maneuvers at shopping centres and a key transport hub, the Irish Independent reports. 

The Defence Forces are learning how to prepare and plan to combat a terror attack, using both low-tech and high-tech command and communications scenarios.

The latest week-long anti terror training course was held at the Defence Forces’ training centre at the Curragh, and representatives from 15 different countries attended.

It has experience in dealing with improvised explosive devices due to the Troubles in the North and Ireland’s experience in peacekeeping with the UN.

Lieut Col Ray Lane from the school, said yesterday that the motto of the course was that “co-operation and co-ordination saved lives.”

The course found that 17 terrorist strikes in the past decade could have been prevented

“We don’t want to instil the fear of God into people, but if they become more aware of what they see around them, this could help the preservation of life,” Col Lane said.

Cutting edge technology is used in the training to give a full insight of where each potential target is and for transmitting data instantly to key players on the unit.

The course pointed out that terrorists involved in Europe attacks usually had little to none military training and were either lightly armed or only had resources such as vehicles and knifes.