Special Reconnaissance Unit | |
---|---|
Active | 1972–2005 |
Country | United Kingdom |
Branch | British Army |
Type | Military Intelligence |
Role | Clandestine human intelligence Clandestine operation Close-quarters combat Counterinsurgency Counterterrorism Covert operation Direct action HUMINT Intelligence assessment Military intelligence Patrolling Reconnaissance Special operations Special reconnaissance Surveillance Undercover operation Urban warfare |
Part of | United Kingdom Special Forces [1] |
Headquarters | RAF Aldergrove, Northern Ireland |
Engagements | Operation Banner (The Troubles) |
The Special Reconnaissance Unit, also known as the 14 Field Security and Intelligence Company, was a unit of the British Army's Intelligence Corps which conducted covert operations in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. It conducted undercover surveillance operations against suspected members of Irish republican and Ulster loyalist paramilitary groups. Members of the unit were recruited from regular Army battalions and trained in an eight-week course by the Special Air Service (SAS). The unit, then numbering 120 men, was deployed to Northern Ireland in November 1972. [2] [3] Their responsibilities included intelligence gathering and assessment and tracking down and neutralising suspected paramilitaries. Allegations of collusion with loyalist paramilitaries were made against the unit. In 1987, the unit became part of the newly formed United Kingdom Special Forces directorate, and formed the core of the new Special Reconnaissance Regiment in 2005.. [1] [4]
The Special Reconnaissance Unit, also known as 14 Intelligence Company, was the successor to the Military Reaction Force (MRF). [5] Selection to 14 Intelligence Company was available to all serving members of the British armed forces and to both sexes. For the first time, women could become members of a UK Special Forces unit. Candidates were required to pass a rigorous selection process, designed to select only those individuals possessing the highly specialized qualifications needed to deal with the stresses of undercover covert operations. In one selection course, out of 1000 applicants, only 17 were ultimately deployed to Northern Ireland.
"Special Reconnaissance Unit" is the term appearing in official documents from the 1970s. An April 1974 briefing for Prime Minister Harold Wilson states:
Authors claiming to be former members of the unit describe an organisation [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] with a depot in Great Britain and four operational detachments in Northern Ireland.
Selection and training of personnel from all arms of the British Armed Forces was conducted in a number of locations in Great Britain. Candidates, both male and female, volunteered for special duties for periods of 18–36 months, before being returned to a parent unit. Trained surveillance operators could volunteer for re-deployment after a period with the parent unit, with potential opportunities to serve in command, staff or training roles within the organisation or higher command structure.
While the unit was active, there was a wide variety of firearms utilized by the unit. [4]
14 Intelligence was accused of acting in collusion with loyalist paramilitaries by former intelligence personnel Fred Holroyd and Colin Wallace in regards to the death of senior Provisional Irish Republican Army member John Francis Green, the Miami Showband killings and the Dublin and Monaghan bombings. [12] [13] [14] [15] [16]
The Troubles were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted for about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an "irregular war" or "low-level war". The conflict began in the late 1960s and is usually deemed to have ended with the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Although the Troubles mostly took place in Northern Ireland, at times violence spilled over into parts of the Republic of Ireland, England, and mainland Europe.
The Force Research Unit (FRU) was a covert military intelligence unit of the British Army's Intelligence Corps. It was established in 1982 during the Troubles to obtain intelligence from terrorist organisations in Northern Ireland by recruiting and running agents and informants. From 1987 to 1991, it was commanded by Gordon Kerr.
The Special Reconnaissance Regiment (SRR) is a tier 1 special reconnaissance unit of the British Army. It was established on 6 April 2005 and is part of the United Kingdom Special Forces (UKSF).
The Milltown Cemetery attack took place on 16 March 1988 at Milltown Cemetery in Belfast, Northern Ireland. During the large funeral of three Provisional IRA members killed in Gibraltar, an Ulster Defence Association (UDA) member, Michael Stone, attacked the mourners with hand grenades and pistols. He had learned there would be no police or armed IRA members at the cemetery. As Stone then ran towards the nearby motorway, a large crowd chased him and he continued shooting and throwing grenades. Some of the crowd caught Stone and beat him, but he was rescued by the police and arrested. Three people were killed and more than 60 wounded.
During the Troubles in Northern Ireland, British security forces were accused by some of operating a "shoot-to-kill" policy, under which suspected paramilitary members were killed without an attempt being made to arrest them. This alleged policy was claimed to be most frequently directed against suspected members of Irish republican paramilitary organisations, such as the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), Official Irish Republican Army (OIRA) and Irish National Liberation Army (INLA). According to an 1985 inquiry by a team of international lawyers titled Shoot to Kill?, undercover security force units were "trained to shoot to kill even where killing is not legally justifiable and where alternative tactics could and should be used." The British government, including the Northern Ireland Office, consistently denied that there was ever a "shoot-to-kill" policy, stating that "like everyone else, the security forces must obey the law and are answerable to the courts for their actions."
Captain Robert Laurence Nairac was a British Army officer in the Grenadier Guards who was abducted from a pub in Dromintee, south County Armagh, during an undercover operation and killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on his fourth tour of duty in Northern Ireland as a Military Intelligence Liaison Officer.
On 19 March 1988, the British Army corporals Derek Wood and David Howes were killed by the Provisional IRA in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in what became known as the corporals killings.
Captain Frederick John Holroyd is a former British soldier who was based at the British Army's 3 Brigade HQ in mid-Ulster, Northern Ireland during the 1970s. He enlisted as a gunner in the Royal Artillery, and three years later, in 1964, he was commissioned into the Royal Army Service Corps. He volunteered for the Special Military Intelligence Unit in Northern Ireland in 1969, and he was trained at the Joint Services School of Intelligence. Once his training was finished, he was stationed in Portadown, where, for two and a half years up to 1975, he ran a series of intelligence operations. He resigned from the Army in 1976.
Desmond "Dessie" Grew was a volunteer in the East Tyrone Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). Grew was killed by undercover Special Air Service soldiers in County Armagh in 1990 along with fellow IRA volunteer, Martin McCaughey who was also a Sinn Féin councillor.
Gerard Patrick Martin McCaughey was a Sinn Féin councillor and volunteer in the East Tyrone Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) from Aughnagar, Galbally, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. McCaughey was killed by undercover British Army soldiers in County Armagh on October 1990 along with fellow IRA volunteer, Dessie Grew.
Events during the year 1988 in Northern Ireland.
The Drummuckavall ambush was an attack by the South Armagh Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on a British Army observation post in Drummuckavall, southeast of Crossmaglen, County Armagh, on 22 November 1975. The attack, which occurred along the border with the Republic of Ireland, resulted in the deaths of three British soldiers and underlined the inefficiency of conventional military skills to deal with the situation in South Armagh, prompting the deployment of the Special Air Service (SAS) in this area.
The Headquarters Mobile Support Unit is the police tactical unit of the Police Service of Northern Ireland. The HMSU was originally formed in the then Royal Ulster Constabulary part of Special Branch and was involved in several controversial shootings during The Troubles.
The National Surveillance Unit (NSU) is the principal clandestine intelligence gathering and surveillance operations unit of the Garda Síochána, the national police force of Ireland. The unit operates under the Crime & Security Branch (CSB), based at Garda Headquarters in the Phoenix Park, Dublin, and also works from Harcourt Street, Dublin. Members of the unit are specially trained and selected Detective Gardaí who are tasked to remain covert whilst on and off duty, tracking suspected criminals, terrorists and hostile, foreign spies operating in Ireland. The unit's detectives are routinely armed. The National Surveillance Unit is understood to possess a manpower of approximately 100 officers, and is considered to be the most secretive arm of the force.
The Military Reaction Force, Military Reconnaissance Force or Mobile Reconnaissance Force (MRF) was a covert intelligence-gathering and counterinsurgency unit of the British Army active in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. The unit was formed during the summer of 1971 and operated until late 1972 or early 1973. MRF teams operated in plain clothes and civilian vehicles, equipped with pistols and submachine guns. They were tasked with tracking and arresting or killing members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). It is alleged that the MRF killed a number of Catholic civilians in drive-by shootings.
Peter Joseph Cleary was an Irish republican and a leading member of the 1st Battalion of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA)'s South Armagh Brigade. He held the rank of Staff Officer and served as the unit's treasurer. He was implicated by journalist and author Joe Tiernan in the killing of Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) corporal and alleged Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) member Robert McConnell. Ten days after McConnell's killing, Cleary was shot dead by the Special Air Service (SAS) after being arrested at the home of his girlfriend outside Forkhill. He was the first person in Northern Ireland to be killed by the SAS, following the admission of their deployment there in January 1976. According to the SAS, he was shot after attempting to take the rifle from the officer who was guarding him in a bid to escape.
On the evening of 26 March 1997, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) East Tyrone Brigade launched an improvised grenade attack on the fortified Royal Ulster Constabulary/British Army base in Coalisland, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. The blast sparked an immediate reaction by an undercover Special Air Service unit, who shot and wounded Gareth Doris, an Irish republican and alleged IRA volunteer. The SAS unit was then surrounded by a crowd of protesters who prevented them approaching Doris or leaving. RUC officers arrived and fired plastic bullets at the crowd, allowing the special forces to leave the area.
The Coagh ambush was a military confrontation that took place in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, on 3 June 1991, during The Troubles, when a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) active service unit from its East Tyrone Brigade was ambushed by the British Army's Special Air Service (SAS) at the village of Coagh, in County Tyrone, whilst on its way to kill a part-time member of the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR). The ambush resulted in the deaths of all three IRA men involved.
Brian Robinson was a loyalist militant from Belfast, Northern Ireland and member of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) who was witnessed killing a Catholic civilian. His death at the hands of an undercover British Army unit is one of the few from the alleged shoot-to-kill policy in Northern Ireland to have involved a loyalist victim.
The following is a Timeline of British Army and Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) undercover operations during Operation Banner during the 1969 – 1998 Northern Irish conflict in Northern Ireland that resulted in death or injury. Including operations by the SAS, 14 Intelligence Company, the Military Reaction Force (MRF), RUC Special Patrol Group and Special Branch.