Twenty-two police officers, three British soldiers and an unknown number of civilians have been injured after more than 100 protesters clashed with security forces at three security bases in south Armagh.
The clashes began at a demilitarisation protest outside an army watchtower at Creevekeeran yesterday afternoon. The protest, organised by the youth wing of Sinn FΘin, turned to violence when some of the protesters attempted to breach the perimeter fencing around the watchtower and were repelled by police. Nine officers were injured.
A spokesman for the Police Service said the protesters were then taken by bus to the nearby Drumuckaval watchtower where they also attempted to breach the perimeter. More violence broke out with 10 officers being injured and two baton rounds being fired.
The protesters moved to a third base, the joint police and army barracks at Crossmaglen. The crowd placed a burning oil drum outside the main gate of the base and broke its way through the outer gate of the station, throwing petrol bombs at those inside. Three soldiers and two military dogs were injured. The army was said to have fired one baton round.
While the security forces said they had only fired three baton rounds, a Sinn FΘin spokesman said that at least six had been shot with at least one man being left "in a bad way" after being struck.
Police said buses were seen leaving the area, one going across the Border and one towards Belfast. The bus to Belfast was subsequently stopped and four people arrested for public order offences. A police spokesman said the violence had clearly been orchestrated. "The number of police injuries is testament to the fact that violence was the only intention of those involved, violence for which they came obviously well prepared."
The Sinn FΘin assembly member for the area, Mr Conor Murphy, condemned what he called the " bully-boy tactics" adopted by police. He said a number of Sinn FΘin protesters had been hit with plastic bullets.
Mr John Fee, the SDLP MLA for the area, challenged Sinn FΘin to say whether it was a new republican tactic in the fight to rid the Border of security posts. Mr Fee said those causing the trouble were not from south Armagh.
Locals have long complained about army watchtowers and last week Sinn FΘin launched a campaign to get the British government to publish a timetable for further demilitarisation. So far, work has only begun on demolishing a small number of the posts.
There were a number of disturbances in north Belfast last night. An eight-year-old girl was slightly injured when the car in which she was travelling was attacked on Whitewelll road. A petrol bomb was thrown at a house on Serpentine Road and six were also thrown on to the M2 motorway.