British kill own men in Ulster ambush

Press, 3 January 1980, Page 6

British kill own men in Ulster ambush

NZPA Belfast Two British soldiers accidentally killed by their own men and a 16-year-old girl shot dead by troops became the first victims of the new decade on New Year’s Day in Northern Ireland’s sectarian fighting. Security officials said soldiers apparently mistook Lieutenant Simon Bates, aged 23, and Private Gerald Hardy, aged 18, for Irish Republican Army guerrillas while setting up a trap outside a village in the I.R.A. stronghold of south Armagh county. They were part of an eight-man Army ambush squad operating in Tullydonnel, near Forkhill, south Armagh, where another member of their regiment, which has lost more men than any other line unit in the province, was killed by a bomb recently. It is believed that the two soldiers were shot without challenge. An Army spokesman said there was no exchange of fire. The shootings are being

investigated by the Royal Ulster Constabulary, and the Army spokesman would say little of the incident.

One theory the investigators are pursuing, however, is that the two men were separated from the others, tried to rejoin the group, were ..mistaken for members of an I.R.A. unit and shot dead. In Belfast, on Tuesday evening a girl was shot dead by troops and a 17-year-old youth wounded as the car in which they were travelling drove through an Army checkpoint in West Belfast.

The police said the car drove through the checkpoint in Whiterock Road, slightly injuring a soldier. The Army opened fire, but the car sped on, the police said. The Army lost the car, but about 20 minutes later a girl and a youth were admitted to hospital, where the girl died within minutes. The dead girl, who has not yet been named,' is the first civilian victim in the conflict this year.

Terrorists earlier launched Northern Ireland into 1980 by blowing up a shop in Lisnaskea, County Fermanagh, at six minutes past midnight and then firing on the police who went to investigate. Officers returned the fire. No-one was injured, said the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Twenty-one minutes later there was an explosion in Middletown, Armagh. First reports said it was an attack on a joint Army and police post. No-one was hurt. The Bloody old year’s last killing occurred on Monday when gunmen raided a Belfast home, fatally shot a 20-year-old man and seriously wounded his 60-year-old father, the police said. The young man’s death brought the 1979 death toll in the Northern Ireland conflict to 113. Tuesday’s three deaths put the toll in just over a decade to 1997.

Later on New Year’s Day about 5000 people marched peacefully in Belfast in support of political status for republican prisoners.