The Red Hand Commandos (originally known simply as the "Red Hand Commando") are a Northern Irelandloyalist paramilitary group with links to the Ulster Volunteer Force. They seek to prevent a political settlement with Irish nationalists by attacking Catholic civilian interests in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland is one of four constituent parts of the United Kingdom. ... For the township in Canada, see Loyalist, Ontario In general, a loyalist is an individual who is loyal to the powers that be. ... The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) is a Northern Ireland loyalist paramilitary group. ...
Activities
The group has carried out numerous pipe bombings and arson attacks against "soft" civilian targets such as homes, churches and private businesses in what are interpretted as attempts to provoke retaliation from the Provisional IRA . The group has claimed responsibility for the car bomb murder on 15 March1999 of Rosemary Nelson, a prominent Catholic lawyer and human rights campaigner in Northern Ireland. Arson is the crime of setting a fire with intent to cause damage. ... The Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) is a paramilitary group which aimed, through the use of violence, to achieve three goals: (i) British withdrawal from Ireland, (ii) the political unification of Ireland through the merger of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland , and (iii) the creation of an all... March 15 is the 74th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (75th in Leap years). ... 1999 is a common year starting on Friday of the Common Era, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... Rosemary Nelson (d. ... A lawyer is a person licensed by the state to advise clients in legal matters and represent them in courts of law (and in other forms of dispute resolution). ... Human rights are rights which some hold to be inalienable and belonging to all humans. ...
Strength
The government of the United States believes that the Red Hand Commandos have up to 20 members, some of whom have considerable experience in guerrilla tactics such as bomb-making.
As revealed in last week's edition Seamus Ludlow's killers were three members of a RedHandCommando unit, two of whom were officers in the British Army's Ulster Defence Regiment, who drove across the Border on the night of May 1st, 1976 to carry out the killing.
The failure of the RUC to bring charges either now or in the past has fuelled speculation that at least one of the RedHandCommandos was a security force agent and that the killing was covered up in 1976 in order to protect an informer.
This raises the intriguing possibility that if there was an informer in the midst of the RedHandCommando unit he may have been working for British military intelligence rather than the police.
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