EmergencyNet News Daily Reports
07/11/96 to 07/14/96 -12:00CDT
ENN Series of Reports; "The Troubles" Continue to Escalate in N. Ireland
ENN 7/11/96 08:50CDT
BELFAST (ENN) - Violence continued in Northern Ireland overnight on Thursday. It is feared that the violence
could worsen when bonfires are lit in the traditional start to marches commemorating victories over Catholics in
the 17th Century. The British government is sending reinforcements to Northern Ireland in response to the
Protestant rioting. About 80 members of the British Army's elite paratroop regiment was flown into Belfast.
About 1,000 additional troops are scheduled to arrive by the end of the week. This will bring British troop
levels in Northern Ireland to 18,500, which would be the highest level since 1982.
On Wednesday night, police fired plastic bullets at a Protestant mob who were threatening five Catholic families
who were forced to flee their homes in Belfast. Elsewhere, Protestants reportedly hijacked buses to burn as
road barricades in the northern suburbs of Belfast. A gang of Protestants, who were blocking a bridge in south
Belfast, beat a woman after she confronted them for throwing rocks at her car. Police were forced to fire plastic
bullets a gang of youths who were throwing gasoline bombs in the town of Lurgan.
The Royal Ulster Constabulary said on Thursday that 65 police officers and 50 civilians have been injured since
Sunday. There have been 750 attacks against police and 150 people have been arrested. Police, so far, have
had to fire 660 plastic bullets at mobs involved in street violence.
ENN 7/12/96 07:34CDT
BELFAST (ENN) - Northern Ireland continues to be on the verge of explosion. Three police officers were shot
and slightly wounded in northern Belfast during the early hours of Friday. They were the first police officers to
be shot in Northern Ireland since 1994. It is not known who fired the shots.
Police said that in Londonberry 900 gasoline bombs were thrown during the night by Catholic rioters. Eleven
police officers and 40 civilians were injured in violence there.
In Belfast, the Royal Ulster Constabulary said that two officers were shot at about 1:45 a.m. during clashes with
youths who were hijacking vehicles and throwing gasoline bombs. One officer was struck in the hand and
another in the ankle. Another officer was shot about 15 minutes later in another neighborhood. Two of the three
officers were treated and released from the hospital.
ENN 7/13/96 08:50CDT
BELFAST (ENN) - Police were fired upon in Northern Ireland overnight. Rioters also threw gasoline bombs at
the police to vent their anger over traditional Protestant marches through Catholic neighborhoods. For the
second straight night there was rioting and burning and hijacking of vehicles in the Catholic districts of Belfast,
Londonberry and several other Northern Irish towns. The minority Catholics in the province are angered by a
police decision to allow two Protestant marches through Catholic districts on Thursday and Friday. The
marches are carried out every July to celebrate 17th Century victories over Catholics and can be interpreted as
nothing more than Protestants rubbing a, what would be considered today as a meaningless victory, into the
faces of Catholics.
In the western part of Belfast, youths threw gasoline bombs at a police-army barracks. Police at the barracks
fired flares into the air so they could see their attackers and fired some plastic bullets to disperse a crowd in the
street about the throw more projectiles.
It was reported that gunmen from two directions fired more than 12 shots at another police barracks. Police did
return fire, but no one was reported hurt. Witnesses said that the gunmen were members of the Irish Republican
Army (IRA). The two nights of Catholic rioting were preceded by four nights of violence by Protestants in
Belfast and in other areas of Northern Ireland.
ENN 7/14/96 09:02CDT
ENNISKILLEN, NORTHERN IRELAND (ENN) - Fierce violence continued in Northern Ireland on
Saturday night. A car bomb exploded at a rural hotel on Sunday morning. Two people were reported wounded
by the blast. The Irish Republican Army (IRA) quickly denied any responsibility for the explosion.
The bomb exploded outside of a hotel near the town of Enniskillen, which is located about 80 miles southwest
of Belfast. It was the first bombing in Northern Ireland since the 1994 IRA cease fire. In a one-line statement to
Irish State radio and television, the IRA said that it "was not involved in the attack on the Killyhevlin Hotel in
Enniskillen."
The bomb was hidden in an Isuzu sports utility vehicle parked at the hotel. The explosive device detonated less
than 30 minutes after two telephone warnings were called in. The explosion left a 13-foot wide crater and
started several cars in the parking lot on fire.
During the night, police had to repel mobs of Catholics who threw gasoline bombs, bricks and rocks at them in
parts of Belfast and Londonberry. Several hundred rioters battled with police in Londonberry until dawn. It was
estimated that 1,000 gasoline bombs were thrown and that several vehicles, a post office and a pub were
destroyed by fire. Police reportedly fired hundreds of plastic bullets at the rioters.
(c) EmergencyNet News Service, 1996, All Rights Reserved.