Findings on IRA killings: 'Where are the inquests for dead UDR and RUC members?' asks Tom Elliott

​Tom Elliott – a former member of the UDR, now a member of the House of Lords – said that the four men who were killed by SAS soldiers in 1992 were probably killers themselves, given that they were part of the highly-active East Tyrone wing of the IRA.

Lord Elliott was reacting to Thursday's inquest findings into the four men’s deaths, which stated that the shooting of the IRA team had been unjustified.

Moves are already afoot by the Labour government to scrap the part of the Legacy Act 2023 which bars new inquests into Troubles-era deaths, paving the way for more such hearings in the future.

Lord Elliott, a former leader of the UUP and MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, told the News Letter: "That'd be fine if that was fair across the board. But it's not.

"How many inquests have been held recently into murdered RUC officers, or soldiers, or UDR members, or indeed civilians who were murdered by terrorists?

"There have been very, very few. And unfortunately it seems to be a one-sided process."

Speaking of the killings themselves, Lord Elliott added: “These were four people who were in an IRA unit, who were obviously intent on causing mayhem, and destruction, and – if possible – murder.

"They had just launched an attack with a heavy machine gun and probably other weapons on a police station.

"This was not a criminal who had broken into a shop or who had got into a fight. These were hardened criminal terrorists.”

Mr Elliott was asked to respond to comments by Sinn Fein Mid Ulster MP Cathal Mallaghan, who was quoted by the BBC as saying that the inquest "confirms what many in our community knew for a long time; that these four men were executed by the SAS without justification".

"Those four men had gone out in an attempt to execute innocent people,” said Lord Elliott.

"And I'm assuming it maybe was not the first those people were involved in.

"I'm sure there are people living in today's society that are without a loved one because these people had murdered them previous to this.”

The weapon the IRA men used in the attack was a Soviet-made WWII-era DSHK heavy machine gun, powerful enough that it was put to use as an anti-aircraft gun (and it remains in use today by Ukranian forces, among others).

The Clonoe ambush was one of a number of similar cases where the security forces had obtained prior information about a planned attack.

In 1987 the SAS killed eight IRA members as they were attacking Loughgall police station.

In 1988 the SAS killed three IRA members as they prepared to kill a part-time UDR soldier in Drumnakilly, central Co Tyrone.

And in 1991 the SAS killed another three IRA members in Coagh, east Co Tyrone, as they prepared to kill another part-time UDR soldier.

In the Coagh ambush one of the dead IRA men was Tony Doris, cousin of the current First Minister.

All the above cases involved members of the IRA's East Tyrone Brigade. Its members often used the tactic of ambush themselves.

Among the scores of attacks the brigade committed were the shooting of 86-year-old former MP Norman Stronge and his son James in 1981;

A remotely-detonated landmine attack which killed four UDR soldiers near Ballygawley in 1983;

And the shooting dead of two RUC officers at Ballygawley RUC station in 1985.