Commandos planned to arrest I.R.A. guerrillas, inquest told

Press, 15 September 1988, Page 6

Commandos planned to arrest I.R.A. guerrillas, inquest told

NZPA-Reuter Gibraltar British commandos have testified that they planned to arrest three I.R.A. guerrillas in Gibraltar, but opened fire believing them to be armed and about to detonate a huge car-bomb. A lawyer, Patrick McGrory, representing relatives of the guerrillas, has accused Britain of operating a “shoot-to-kill” policy against I.R.A. suspects and said the plainclothed troops did not attempt to arrest the three who died in a hail of 27 bullets. The outlawed Irish Republican Army group is fighting British rule in Northern Ireland. Soldier A, of the elite Special Air Service (S.A.S.) regiment, yesterday told a coroner’s inquest into the deaths that he shot two of the I.R.A. guerrillas in the back after they made movements which he interpreted as lethal. He was the first to

testify of the four S.A.S. men who fired on Sean Savage, Mairead Farrell and Daniel McCann on a crowded Gibraltar street on March 6. The other three are due to appear later this week. Other S.A.S. members, Soldier F, who commanded the seven-mem-ber unit, tactical commander, Soldier E, and a bomb expert, Soldier G, have already given evidence. All the men answered questions from behind a curtain to conceal their identities. It is the first time members of the S.A.S. have given evidence in open court in a case involving the I.R.A. The soldiers told the inquest the Ministry of Defence decided to send in the S.A.S. following a request by Gibraltar police to help foil an I.R.A. car-bomb attack in the British colony. Soldier A told the Court that the soldiers learned

in a briefing the evening before the shooting that the three I.R.A. guerrillas planned to detonate by remote control a massive car-bomb in a Gibraltar square on March 8 while British soldiers assembled there for a ceremony. The soldiers were warned that the guerrillas would be armed and would not hesitate to use their weapons or press the button of their radio-con-trolled detonator. The Court has heard that the guerrillas turned out to be unarmed, the car-bomb was not yet in Gibraltar at the time of the shooting and it was to be detonated by timer, not remote control. Soldier A said they were instructed to arrest the three with the minimum of force, using firearms only if lives were endangered. He said he and another S.A.S. man were about to apprehend McCann and Farrell when McCann

turned, seemed to recognise him as a security man and brought his hands to his waist. The two guerrillas were shot. Savage, a short distance away, was killed by at least 16 bullets fired by two other S.A.S. men, Soldier A said. “Did it occur to you that you had made a mess of this operation?” Mr McGrory asked Soldier A. “You were sent to arrest these people and you shot them all dead,” he said. Soldier A replied, “We used the minimum amount of force.” The S.A.S. soldiers have argued they are highly trained professionals. They said the fact that all 27 bullets fired at the three guerrillas hit their targets showed the commandos were in perfect control. The Coroner’s Court pathologist, Alan Watson, giving evidence last week, described the shootings as a “frenzied attack.”