Arrests of six top I.R.A. men reported

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33064, 3 November 1972, Page 9

Arrests of six top I.R.A. men reported

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter —Copfirisht) BELFAST, November 2. The British Army said today that it had arrested six top Provisional I.R.A. leaders, including a battalion commander, during a raid late last night in the Roman Catholic \rdo\ ne area of Belfast.

The six, who included three other officers and two of the militant I.R.A. wing’s top gunmen, were seized during what an Army spokesman called “a major search operation” in the Ardoyne. The battalion commander was the third seized in the Ardoyne in the last few weeks by the Army, who believe that the leadership ranks of the Provisionals have been seriously depleted by recent arrests in the city.

A total of 25 persons were taken into custody in last

I night’s raid, but most were released after questioning. The Army did not give out any names of those detained.

I A British soldier shot in !the stomach by a sniper in Belfast yesterday was still in serious condition in hospital today. Near the border village of Newtown Butler, two brothers, members of the Protestant Ulster Defence Regiment (U.D.R.) came under fire for about an hour in their home last night before the Army arrived and the gunmen escaped. The brothers have been preparing to move out of their farm in the area because another U.D.R. member was shot dead in his home there last week. In Belfast last night members of the Ulster Defence Association (U.D.A.) militant claimed responsibility for an explosion in a bar just across the border with the Irish Republic which they alleged was used by I.R.A. guerrillas. Police said that the blast in the bar in the town of St Johnstown caused no injuries and little damage.

I The U.D.A. said that it | would continue to attack targets across the border [which harbour “I.R.A. scum.” The Northern Ireland administrator (Mr William Whitelaw). met leading Roman Catholic politicians in Belfast yesterday to hear an appeal for greater security (after the deaths of two little girls in the city on Tuesday i night.