Northern Ireland: Getting Tough With the I.R.A.

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The Irish Republican Army commandos figured on a turkey shoot. What they got was a bloody shoot-out. Late last week a bulldozer carrying a bomb rammed the gates of a police station in the village of Loughgall, 30 miles from Belfast. Just before the device exploded, wrecking the building, masked terrorists leaped from a blue van and raked the post with gunfire. But the station was empty; tipped off in advance, the police had cleared out. Suddenly a team of the British army's crack Special Air Service sprang from hiding and opened fire.

Killed in the gun battle were all eight I.R.A. terrorists, along with a 38- year-old man caught in the cross fire. It was the most serious setback for the I.R.A. in 18 years of sectarian violence in Ulster. Said Tom King, London's Secretary of State for Northern Ireland: "We are determined to ensure that terrorism does not win."