BELFAST FIGHTING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18018, 17 February 1922, Page 5

BELFAST FIGHTING.

TEOOPS ENGAGED,

BAYONET CHARGE MADE.

MORE ASSASSINATIONS.

27 KILLED THIS WEEK.

OVER 100 WOUNDED.

Bt Tclffraph—Press Association—Copyright.

(Received 7-15 p.m.) LONDON. Feb. 15.

A and N.Z

Though tl e presence of military caused an improvement iff conditions in Belfast this morning tierce shooting broke out in several .list net* this afternoon. Concealed snipers in Stanhope Street tirod hundreds of shots. The troops replied and made a bayonet charge.

Six men entered the office of a mill and shot Mr- William Duffin, tho son of a leading lineu merchant, whoso only other son was killed in the war.

Sinn Feiners shot dead a special constable in New Lodge Road. Tho police shot and killed a man who was crawling along tho roof of a public house in York Street,

The bodies of three men shot during the night were recovered to-day. Two men who were previously wounded sueclimbed to-day.

The Belfast correspondent of the Evening News says that some of the murders were ,"arried out most brutally, and resembled executions. In one case six armed men seized .lames Rue, blindfolded him ■oritb a scarf, muffled his head with an overcoat, sei him against a wall and shot him dead.

Many of tin- snipers are mere bovs. This week's casualty list consists of 27 killed ird ov->r 100 wounded.