25-YEAR TRAIL OF TERRORISM
25-year trail of Terrorism
'Super-terrorists' responsible for Kingsmill and Omagh killings
By JEANETTE OLDHAM
THE terrorists who masterminded the Omagh bombing have been responsible for a catalogue of carnage over more than two decades -but remain free today.
The News Letter has learned that the ringleaders of the team which committed Ulster's single worst atrocity in August also carried out the Kingsmill and the Tullyvallen massacres in the mid-1970s.
And we have the police documents that prove it - details of which lift the lid on the identities of a gang of so-called "super-terrorists" who embarked on their careers as terrorists with the Provisional IRA, later operating under the phoney tag of the South Armagh Republican Action Group during the ceasefires of the 70s.
Now they're with the renegade Real IRA and the Continuity IRA.
The documents claim while the Provos were pretending to be abiding by a truce, their best bombmakers and marksmen were busy carrying out some of the country's most appalling murder campaigns.
A police source involved in the Omagh bomb investigation said not all, but at least two or three of the men behind last August's atrocity have a track record of terrorist crime which dates back to the early 70s, and includes the Tullyvallen and Kingsmill massacres.
No one was ever charged for the Kingsmill massacre, in which 10 Protestants were shot after their bus was ambushed by republican terrorists.
The same goes for the Tullyvallen killings. Five Orangemen were shot dead when masked gunmen burst into their hall.
PIRA denied any involvement in either atrocity, although it was widely believed it was behind both.
Instead a little-heard-of group, the South Armagh Republican Action Group claimed responsibility.
But today the News Letter can confirm that the police knew at the time that the name of this gang was just a cover for leading Provisionals.
A paragraph in the papers, referring to the Kingsmill atrocity, explains: "The Tullyvallen massacre was thought to be the work of a group calling themselves the South Armagh Republican Action Group, which was undoubtedly a cover name for a gang of cross-border PIRA terrorists, probably operating outside the traditional PIRA orbit for specific operations of this nature, and it is thought likely that the same terrorists were involved in this incident ..."
And the document goes on to reveal that the same gang of men shot several UDR soldiers in 1974 and 1975.
Some of the weapons used at Kingsmill had never been used before and police suggest this was so that they would not be linked back to any previous Provo shootings.
The documents allege PIRA carried out the massacres but blamed it on another group because it was on ceasefire.
A policeman who investigated the Kingsmill massacre told the News Letter: "They've always been in the Provisonals. They've been PIRA from the start and they're totally committed to the group and what they believe it always stood for.
"After the last ceasefire they pretended to defect and become the Real IRA. It enabled them to carry out the Omagh bombing.
"It meant PIRA could not be blamed and Sinn Fein could carry on with its part in the peace process.
"It's all very clever. It's just politics. But the reality is that we have had the same small group of committed hardline Provos carrying out different atrocities over the years under different names.
"They're a bunch of what you might call super-terrorists. Hardly any of them has ever been to jail.
"And few of them are so-called notorious IRA men. They're the real godfathers."
Most of the men lived in south Armagh or in Dundalk.
The majority of them have spent the past 30 years switching between the two areas.
'Super-terrorists' responsible for Kingsmill and Omagh killings
By JEANETTE OLDHAM
THE terrorists who masterminded the Omagh bombing have been responsible for a catalogue of carnage over more than two decades -but remain free today.
The News Letter has learned that the ringleaders of the team which committed Ulster's single worst atrocity in August also carried out the Kingsmill and the Tullyvallen massacres in the mid-1970s.
And we have the police documents that prove it - details of which lift the lid on the identities of a gang of so-called "super-terrorists" who embarked on their careers as terrorists with the Provisional IRA, later operating under the phoney tag of the South Armagh Republican Action Group during the ceasefires of the 70s.
Now they're with the renegade Real IRA and the Continuity IRA.
The documents claim while the Provos were pretending to be abiding by a truce, their best bombmakers and marksmen were busy carrying out some of the country's most appalling murder campaigns.
A police source involved in the Omagh bomb investigation said not all, but at least two or three of the men behind last August's atrocity have a track record of terrorist crime which dates back to the early 70s, and includes the Tullyvallen and Kingsmill massacres.
No one was ever charged for the Kingsmill massacre, in which 10 Protestants were shot after their bus was ambushed by republican terrorists.
The same goes for the Tullyvallen killings. Five Orangemen were shot dead when masked gunmen burst into their hall.
PIRA denied any involvement in either atrocity, although it was widely believed it was behind both.
Instead a little-heard-of group, the South Armagh Republican Action Group claimed responsibility.
But today the News Letter can confirm that the police knew at the time that the name of this gang was just a cover for leading Provisionals.
A paragraph in the papers, referring to the Kingsmill atrocity, explains: "The Tullyvallen massacre was thought to be the work of a group calling themselves the South Armagh Republican Action Group, which was undoubtedly a cover name for a gang of cross-border PIRA terrorists, probably operating outside the traditional PIRA orbit for specific operations of this nature, and it is thought likely that the same terrorists were involved in this incident ..."
And the document goes on to reveal that the same gang of men shot several UDR soldiers in 1974 and 1975.
Some of the weapons used at Kingsmill had never been used before and police suggest this was so that they would not be linked back to any previous Provo shootings.
The documents allege PIRA carried out the massacres but blamed it on another group because it was on ceasefire.
A policeman who investigated the Kingsmill massacre told the News Letter: "They've always been in the Provisonals. They've been PIRA from the start and they're totally committed to the group and what they believe it always stood for.
"After the last ceasefire they pretended to defect and become the Real IRA. It enabled them to carry out the Omagh bombing.
"It meant PIRA could not be blamed and Sinn Fein could carry on with its part in the peace process.
"It's all very clever. It's just politics. But the reality is that we have had the same small group of committed hardline Provos carrying out different atrocities over the years under different names.
"They're a bunch of what you might call super-terrorists. Hardly any of them has ever been to jail.
"And few of them are so-called notorious IRA men. They're the real godfathers."
Most of the men lived in south Armagh or in Dundalk.
The majority of them have spent the past 30 years switching between the two areas.
Further Information
Publisher: NEWS LETTER
Ref: NL/183
Published Date: 22-Jan-99
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