IRA attack leaves five casualties
FIVE MEMBERS OF A JOINT RUC and British Army patrol were injured
when an IRA unit launched a daring gun and bomb attack on them
while they operated a checkpoint in North Belfast late on Friday
night 11 July.
Of those injured three were British soldiers from the
Staffordshire Regiment which had just flown in to the Six
Counties as part of the increased security measures introduced by
the British government for the Twelfth. The other injured were
members of the RUC. All five received leg injuries.
The attack was carried out at 10.10pm as the crown forces
operated a checkpoint near the Hillview Road and Oldpark Road
junction when an IRA unit drove through the British roadblock.
Two Volunteers got out of the car and fired 56 shots from AK 47
assault rifles at the crown forces. As these Volunteers made
their escape a Volunteer, covering them, threw a coffee jar bomb.
In a statement claiming responsibility for the attack the IRA's
Belfast Brigade said, ``An active service unit from Belfast
Brigade Oglaigh na hEireann carried out an attack on the crown
forces on Friday night 11 July. Our Volunteers drove through the
British roadblock, dismounted from their car and opened fire from
close range at the crown forces. Were it not for the armour of
their Saxon armoured vehicle and their flak jackets the injuries
to the RUC and British soldiers would have been more serious''.
The IRA statement added that it was also their Volunteers who
carried out a grenade attack on a crown forces patrol in the Doon
Road area of Lenadoon in West Belfast. No hits were claimed.
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