Army 'trained loyalist death squads'

A group of men who claim they were secret agents for anti-terrorist missions in Northern Ireland are to meet Irish government officials, it has been revealed.

The men will travel to Dublin where they will tell Department of Foreign Affairs officials that the British Army trained and equipped loyalist death squads and encouraged assassinations and bombing missions.

The department confirmed that the meeting would go ahead ‘‘as a matter of routine’’ after the allegations were made by self-confessed Army agent Willie Carlin in an interview yesterday.

Mr Carlin claimed that loyalists supplied training and information which was used to target and murder civilians on both sides of the Irish border.

He said many of the agents were recruited into the Force Research Unit of the Army, which acted as an intelligence body above the British government and Special Branch.

Mr Carlin alleged that the purpose of the FRU, which recruited him in 1974, was to redirect ‘‘loyalist killing gangs’’ away from sectarian murder towards ‘‘legitimate’’ republican targets.

‘‘Operations were allowed to go ahead and people lost their lives as a result,’’ he said.

He claimed that John Francis Green, who was killed in Monaghan in 1975, was assassinated by loyalists acting on information received by the British Army.

Mr Carlin told RTE: ‘‘The people who killed him got their information from the FRU and they were allowed through the border.

‘‘The route was cleared for them to kill Joe Green and they were allowed safe passage back to Northern Ireland.’’

The decision to go public and approach the Irish Government came after Britain ‘‘abandoned’’ the agents as peace prevailed, Mr Carlin said.

A group of those agents were now threatening to release information claiming that the British authorities withheld information about ‘‘killings, break-ins, SAS activity in the republic and information that wasn’t passed on’’, he said.

Among those allegations were claims that loyalist attackers were ‘‘encouraged’’ and given bomb-making training to plant car bombs in Dublin and Monaghan which killed 33 people in 1974.

A top judge is currently heading a Dublin inquiry into the attacks amid claims by survivors and the families of the dead that British security forces colluded with the bombers.

Mr Carlin also claimed that the RUC was given information by agent Kevin Fulton ‘‘naming the man who made the Omagh bomb’’.

Fulton contacted his RUC handlers prior to the attack and warned that a bombing mission was being planned in the province, although he could not specify where.

Northern Ireland police ombudsman Nuala O’Loan concluded after her investigation into the Omagh probe that Fulton’s information was not given ‘‘sufficient weight’’ or adequately followed up, although she said it was unlikely the details could have prevented the bombing.

A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said: ‘‘A group of people claiming to be former British agents wrote to the Taoiseach requesting a meeting.

‘‘They were given a standard reply as you or I would if we made such a request.’’

It would now be arranged for a department official to meet the men ‘‘as a matter of routine’’ after Easter, the spokesman added.