|
The Clonoe ambush happened on 16 February 1992 in the village of Clonoe, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. A local Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) unit was ambushed by the Special Air Service and 14 Intelligence Company at a graveyard after launching a heavy machine gun attack on the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) base in Coalisland. IRA members Peter Clancy, Kevin Barry O'Donnell, Seán O'Farrell, and Patrick Vincent were killed, while two others escaped. An SAS soldier was wounded in the operation. ==Background== :''See also: Loughgall ambush, Ballygawley bombing, Derrygorry Gazelle shootdown and Coagh ambush'' From 1985 onwards, the IRA in East Tyrone had been the forefront of a wide IRA campaign against British military facilities. In 1987, an East Tyrone IRA unit was ambushed and eight of its members killed by the SAS while bombing an RUC base at Loughgall, County Armagh. This was the IRA's greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles. Despite these losses, the IRA campaign continued unabated; 33 British bases were destroyed and nearly 100 damaged during the next five years.〔Toolis, Kevin (1995). ''Rebel Hearts: journeys within the IRA's soul''. Picador, p. 53; ISBN 0-330-34243-6〕 The SAS ambush had no noticeable long-term effect on the level of IRA activity in East Tyrone. In the two years before the Loughgall ambush the IRA killed seven people in East Tyrone and North Armagh, and eleven in the two years following the ambush.〔Urban, Mark (1992). ''Big Boys' Rules''. Faber and Faber, p. 242; ISBN 0-571-16809-4〕 Three other IRA volunteers — Gerard Harte, Martin Harte and Brian Mullin — had been ambushed and killed by the SAS as they tried to kill an off-duty Ulster Defence Regiment soldier near Carrickmore, County Tyrone.〔(DUP slams GAA club IRA commemoration ) Newshound 27 September 2003〕 British intelligence identified them as the perpetrators of the Ballygawley bus bombing, which killed eight British soldiers. After that bombing, all troops on leave or returning from leave were ferried in and out of East Tyrone by helicopter.〔Van Der Bijl, Nick (2009). ''Operation Banner: The British Army in Northern Ireland 1969 to 2007''. Pen & Sword Military, p. 179. ISBN 1-84415-956-6〕 Another high-profile attack of the East Tyrone Brigade was carried out on 11 January 1990 near Augher, where a Gazelle helicopter was shot down.〔Bruce, Ian. (Fears of new IRA atrocity after attack on helicopter ), ''Herald Scotland'', 14 February 1990.〕 On 3 June 1991, three IRA men, Lawrence McNally, Michael "Pete" Ryan and Tony Doris, died in another SAS ambush at Coagh, where their car was riddled with gunfire. Ryan was the same man who according to Irish journalist and author Ed Moloney had led the mixed flying column which assaulted a British Army checkpoint at Derryard under direct orders of top IRA Army Council member 'Slab' Murphy two years before. Moloney, who wrote ''A Secret History of the IRA'', reported that the IRA East Tyrone Brigade lost 53 members during the Troubles — the highest of any "Brigade area".〔O'Brien, p. 160〕 Of these, 28 were killed between 1987 and 1992.〔Moloney, Ed (2002). ''The Secret History of the IRA''. W.W. Norton & Co., pp. 313-19; ISBN 0-393-32502-4〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Clonoe ambush」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|