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London, England (CNN) -- The soldiers who fired on the Londonderry crowd on Bloody Sunday in 1972 fired the first shot, on orders that "should not have been given by their commander," British Prime Minister David Cameron said Tuesday.
Cameron made his comments as he unveiled a British public inquiry report on Bloody Sunday, January 30, 1972, when British troops opened fire on demonstrators in Northern Ireland, killing 13 on the spot. Another died months later of wounds suffered that day.
The inquiry has cost more than $280 million, heard 2,500 witnesses, and lasted more than a dozen years -- making it the longest-running such probe in British history.
None of the 14 casualties was posing a threat, Cameron said. One of those shot was killed while crawling away from British soldiers, and another was shot while lying mortally wounded on the ground, he said.
The soldiers who opened fire in the city of Londonderry on Bloody Sunday insisted they were threatened by people with weapons. That's what they told an inquiry in 1972, and they were largely cleared of wrongdoing.
Cameron made his comments as he unveiled a British public inquiry report on Bloody Sunday, January 30, 1972, when British troops opened fire on demonstrators in Northern Ireland, killing 13 on the spot. Another died months later of wounds suffered that day.
The inquiry has cost more than $280 million, heard 2,500 witnesses, and lasted more than a dozen years -- making it the longest-running such probe in British history.
None of the 14 casualties was posing a threat, Cameron said. One of those shot was killed while crawling away from British soldiers, and another was shot while lying mortally wounded on the ground, he said.
The soldiers who opened fire in the city of Londonderry on Bloody Sunday insisted they were threatened by people with weapons. That's what they told an inquiry in 1972, and they were largely cleared of wrongdoing.
http://edition.cnn.c...inquiry/?hpt=T1
I traveled to Derry, North Ireland in 2002, and took part in a memorial service for those who were killed. My father's friend lives in Derry, Northern Ireland and was routinely harassed by British soliders when he was a teenager...all because he was Catholic. Being of Irish-ancestry (my family only came to the United States in 1904) this is quite important to me.
If anyone has any comments about this news, please feel free to speak your mind. Please be curteous to others, though. Thanks.
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