Member

In the firefight that followed, all eight members of the IRA active service unit were killed. These are the people otherwise described as victims in this exercise. I have already detailed the worst of them, Jim Lynagh; rather than detail the rest, I will simply say that on forensic analysis, it was found that the weapons recovered after the event were responsible for 40 to 50 killings—killings that took place in every single county in Northern Ireland. What was the effect of this operation? Well, the East Tyrone brigade had been responsible for more than 20% of the IRA’s activities and killings in Northern Ireland beforehand; afterwards, they were responsible for less than 10%. This operation saved lives.