Pullout brings North troop levels to 30-year low

TROOP levels in the North are about to drop to the lowest level in 30 years.

The Royal Welch Fusiliers, based in Bessbrook on the south Armagh border, are starting to pull out and will be gone before the end of the week.

Their departure will see troop levels in the North fall below 9,000, lower than at any time since the beginning of the 1970s.

It also means that for the first time since the Troubles began there won’t be a roulement battalion - troops on a six-month tour of duty unaccompanied by wives or families - in Northern Ireland.

It is what security chiefs consider to be a further sign of returning normality as the terrorist threat diminishes.

At one time there were six roulement battalions in the North - normally in the key hot spots.

They were reduced to four in 2000 and have been phased out gradually since.

There has been such a battalion at Bessbrook Mill since 1980, providing a security force presence at military sites in the Border region.

One of their key tasks has been the manning of hilltop border observation posts. Three of what republicans call “spy posts” have been demolished but five remain.

A British Ministry of Defence spokesman said that soldiers from the 1st Battalion, the Cheshire Regiment, based in Ballykinlar, Co Derry, would transfer to Bessbrook to man the posts.