IRA ‘fired first shot’ in Loughgall
A report into one of the most controversial cases of the Troubles says the IRA fired the first shot during a gun battle with the SAS at the RUC police station in Loughgall in 1987.
The Historical Enquiries Team has concluded that the IRA unit was to blame for shooting first before being wiped out by the SAS, according to the Belfast Telegraph.
The newspaper is reporting on Friday that the investigation team has said those involved in the gun attack could not have been arrested safely and the SAS “were within their rights to open fire”.
Victims’ families have always claimed that the IRA men were targeted in a ‘shoot-to-kill’ operation.
Eight IRA men and one innocent civilian were killed in the attack in May 1987.
Sinn Féin MLA Barry McElduff said: “The men killed at Loughgall were victims of a British Government policy of shoot-to-kill.
“They were sent there to kill the IRA unit and that is what they did. If the HET try and put forward a different theory it will say more about that groups credibility than anything else.”
The HET report is expected to be released next month.
The police unit, set up to investigate murders during the Troubles, has refused to comment on the matter.
The Belfast Telegraph’s Political Editor Liam Clarke, who wrote the story, said he is confident his sources have seen the report.
“I can’t disclose my sources because it was confidential but I am confident that the people I spoke to knew what was in the report,” he told UTV.
“I am sure this won’t end the dispute – there will be arguments that there should have been a cordon around the area and so on but I am confident that those are the findings of the report.”
However DUP MLA William Irwin said it will have to be accepted.
“There are some within Northern Ireland who accept any report alleging wrongdoing by the Police, Army or other agencies of the State without question,” Mr Irwin said.
“In circumstances now where a report has demonstrated that members of the Armed Forces acted legitimately they must now accept the veracity of this too.”
Human rights groups the Committee on the Administration of Justice and the Pat Finucane Centre have raised serious concerns as to how potentially inaccurate information, allegedly reflecting findings of an unpublished report by the HET into the Loughgall killings, has been published in the media, without families being informed.
CAJ acted on behalf of the families when this case was taken to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and, together with the PFC, have continued to assist the families since then.
Brian Gormally, Director of CAJ said: “We have serious questions to ask as to whether and why someone from within the security establishment has made claims as to the content of the yet unpublished report into the killings at Loughgall.
“The families do not yet know what is actually contained within this report or whether it represents a full independent investigation. However, we are conscious of the risk that the first headline usually sticks in the mind of the public, regardless of what full and accurate picture subsequently emerges. The fact that the families of the deceased learned of these claims in today’s media, is of great concern to us.”
