Operation HERRICK, Afghanistan.

On 11 September 2001, four American passenger jets were taken over in flight by al-Qaeda terrorists. Two of the aircraft were flown into each of the twin towers of The World Trade Centre in New York, both of which subsequently collapsed; a third was flown into The Pentagon, headquarters of the United States Department of Defence; the fourth aircraft crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after passengers tried to wrest control from the terrorist hijackers. Nearly 3,000 people, including everyone on board the aircraft, died in the attacks planned by al-Qaeda, under the direction of Osama bin Laden from his base in Afghanistan; a base he was allowed to occupy by the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

On 7 October 2001, US and British armed forces invaded Afghanistan to oust the Taliban regime which harboured al-Qaeda. Operation HERRICK was the codename for all British military operations in Afghanistan in support of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and the US-led Operation ENDURING FREEDOM.

Operation HERRICK ended in October 2014. The Royal Irish Regiment undertook three substantial Operation HERRICK deployments, HERRICK 4 (2006), HERRICK 8 (2008) and HERRICK 13 (2010). The Regiment’s 2nd (Reserve) Battalion has provided mobilised individual reinforcements to a number of others.