Wilford denies plan to seize IRA-controlled area

The officer commanding the British soldiers responsible for Bloody Sunday has told the Saville Inquiry that the paratroopers never intended to seize control of the IRA-controlled Bogside area.

Colonel Derek Wilford disagreed with a suggestion from a tribunal lawyer that the British Army's aim was to recapture the area.

Colonel Wilford's troops shot and killed 13 unarmed Catholic civil rights marchers during an operation in the Bogside on January 30, 1972, which eventually became known as Bloody Sunday.

The British Army has always said that the operation was designed to arrest rioters.