page_title: Operation Flavius
section_title: Events of 6 March
hierarchical_section_title: Operation Flavius / Events of 6 March
caption_attribution_description: English: Site by Southport Gates in Gibraltar where three members of the IRA were planning on detonating a car bomb during a military parade in 1988.
context_page_description: Operation Flavius was a military operation in which three members of a Provisional Irish Republican Army cell were shot dead by undercover members of the British Special Air Service in Gibraltar on 6 March 1988. The three—Seán Savage, Daniel McCann, and Mairéad Farrell —were believed to be mounting a car bomb attack on British military personnel in Gibraltar. Plain-clothed SAS soldiers approached them in the forecourt of a petrol station, then opened fire, killing them. All three were found to be unarmed, and no bomb was discovered in Savage's car, leading to accusations that the British government had conspired to murder them. An inquest in Gibraltar ruled that the SAS had acted lawfully, while the European Court of Human Rights held that, although there had been no conspiracy, the planning and control of the operation was so flawed as to make the use of lethal force almost inevitable. The deaths were the first in a chain of violent events in a fourteen-day period. On 16 March, the funeral of the three IRA members was attacked by a loyalist wielding pistols and grenades, leaving three mourners dead.
context_section_description: According to the official account of the operation, Savage entered Gibraltar undetected in a white Renault 5 at 12:45 (CET; UTC+1) on 6 March 1988. An MI5 officer recognised him and he was followed, but he was not positively identified for almost an hour and a half, during which time he parked the vehicle in the car park used as the assembly area for the changing of the guard. At 14:30, McCann and Farrell were observed crossing the frontier from Spain and were also followed. They met Savage in the car park at around 14:50 and a few minutes later the three began walking through the town. After the three left the car park, "Soldier G", a bomb-disposal officer, was ordered to examine Savage's car; he returned after a few minutes and reported that the vehicle should be treated as a suspect car bomb. This soldier's suspicion was conveyed as certainty to Soldiers "A", "B", "C", and "D", who were ordered into positions to intercept Savage, McCann, and Farrell as they walked north towards the Spanish border. "Soldier G"'s information convinced Gibraltar Police Commissioner Joseph Canepa, who was controlling the operation, to order the arrest of the three suspects. To that end, he signed over control of the operation to "Soldier F", the senior SAS officer, at 15:40. Two minutes after receiving control, "Soldier F" ordered Soldiers "A", "B", "C", and "D" to apprehend the IRA operatives, by which time they were walking north on Winston Churchill Avenue towards the airport and the border. As the soldiers approached, the suspects appeared to realise that they were being followed. Savage split from the group and began heading south, brushing against "Soldier A" as he did so; "A" and "B" decided to continue approaching McCann and Farrell, leaving Savage to Soldiers "C" and "D".
  At the same time as the police handed control over to the SAS, they began making arrangements for the IRA terrorists once they were in custody, including finding a police vehicle in which to transport the prisoners. A patrol car containing Inspector Luis Revagliatte and three other uniformed officers, apparently on routine patrol and with no knowledge of Operation Flavius, was ordered to return to police headquarters as a matter of urgency. The police car was stuck in heavy traffic travelling north on Smith Dorrien Avenue, close to the roundabout where it meets Winston Churchill Avenue. The official account states that at this point, Revagliatte's driver activated the siren on the police car in order to expedite the journey back to headquarters, intending to approach the roundabout from the wrong side of the road and turn the vehicle around. The siren apparently startled McCann and Farrell, just as Soldiers "A" and "B" were about to challenge them, outside the Shell petrol station on Winston Churchill Avenue. "Soldier A" stated at the inquest that Farrell looked back at him and appeared to realise who "A" was; "A" testified that he was drawing his pistol and intended to shout a challenge to her, but "events overtook the warning": that McCann's right arm "moved aggressively across the front of his body", leading "A" to believe that McCann was reaching for a remote detonator. "A" shot McCann once in the back; "A" went on to tell the inquest that he believed Farrell then reached for her handbag, and that he believed Farrell may also have been reaching for a remote detonator. "A" also shot Farrell once in the back, before returning to McCann—he shot McCann a further three times (once in the body and twice in the head). "Soldier B" testified that he reached similar conclusions to "A", and shot Farrell twice, then McCann once or twice, then returned to Farrell, shooting her a further three times. Soldiers "C" and "D" testified at the inquest that they were moving to apprehend Savage, who was by now 300 feet (91 metres) south of the petrol station, as gunfire began behind them. "Soldier C" testified that Savage turned around while simultaneously reaching towards his jacket pocket at the same time as "C" shouted "Stop!"; "C" stated that he believed Savage was reaching f
caption: Proposed site of IRA car bomb by Southport Gates
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