New Inquest Into Shooting Dead Of IRA Members By SAS

Northern Ireland's Advocate General has decided new inquests should be held into the shooting dead of eight IRA members and a civilian by the SAS in May 1987.

Codenamed Operation Judy, a 36-strong team from the British Army's Special Air Service ambushed eight terrorists who were carrying out an attack on the village of Loughgall's RUC police station. Gunned down, the killing of the unit became the IRA's biggest loss of life in a single incident.

Two civilians were also shot, one fatally, after the SAS opened fire on their car after mistakenly believing them to be part of the terrorist operation. 

Acting independently of Government, and going above the head of the province's Attorney General, Jeremy Wright QC said: "Following careful consideration of a huge amount of material I have come to the decision that new inquests into the Loughgall deaths are justified.

"The new inquests will establish who has died, and how, when and where the death occurred. The Coroners Service for Northern Ireland will now take this forward."

News of the inquests has been welcomed by family members of the men shot, among them Mairead Kelly, whose brother Patrick was one of those killed: "We welcome the decision to have new inquests into the Loughgall Ambush in which my brother was killed by the SAS.

"It is a decision that should have been taken here in Northern Ireland and not in London and not by a British politician. We hope that the inquests can be established promptly and that the families of the victims and the coroner are provided with all the information they need."

"We are a step further toward the truth, justice and accountability we seek on behalf of our loved ones."

In 2001 the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the eight men killed in the ambush had had their human rights violated by the failure of the then British Government to conduct an appropriate investigation into their deaths.

A decade later Northern Ireland's Historical Enquiries Team found that not only did the IRA unit open fire first but that they could not have been safely detained. They concluded that the SAS were justified in opening fire.

Controversy over the ambush has however failed to go away amid claims that members of the Special Forces continued to fire on the men as they lay wounded on the ground.