Clonoe ambush

Clonoe ambush
Part of the Troubles and Operation Banner
St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church, Dernagh, near Clonoe, where the ambush took place
Date 16 February 1992 Location Clonoe, County Tyrone Northern Ireland 54°32′51.5″N 6°40′5″W / 54.547639°N 6.66806°W / 54.547639; -6.66806Coordinates: 54°32′51.5″N 6°40′5″W / 54.547639°N 6.66806°W / 54.547639; -6.66806 Result Most of IRA unit killed RUC base damaged by machine-gun fire
Belligerents
Provisional IRA	British Army (SAS)
Strength
6 IRA members	unknown
Casualties and losses
4 killed	1 wounded
Location within Northern Ireland

The Clonoe ambush happened on 16 February 1992 in the village of Clonoe, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. A local Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) unit was ambushed by the Special Air Service and 14 Intelligence Company at a graveyard after launching a heavy machine gun attack on the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) base in Coalisland. IRA members Peter Clancy, Kevin Barry O'Donnell, Seán O'Farrell, and Patrick Vincent were killed, while two others escaped. An SAS soldier was wounded in the operation.

From 1985 onwards, the IRA in East Tyrone had been at the forefront of a wide IRA campaign against British military facilities. In 1987, an East Tyrone IRA unit was ambushed and eight of its members killed by the SAS while bombing an RUC base at Loughgall, County Armagh. This was the IRA's greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles. Despite these losses, the IRA campaign continued unabated; 33 British bases were destroyed and nearly 100 damaged during the next five years. The SAS ambush had no noticeable long-term effect on the level of IRA activity in East Tyrone. In the two years before the Loughgall ambush the IRA killed seven people in East Tyrone and North Armagh, and eleven in the two years following the ambush.

Three other IRA volunteers — Gerard Harte, Martin Harte and Brian Mullin — had been ambushed and killed by the SAS as they tried to kill an off-duty Ulster Defence Regiment soldier near Carrickmore, County Tyrone. British intelligence identified them as the perpetrators of the Ballygawley bus bombing, which killed eight British soldiers. After that bombing, all troops on leave or returning from leave were ferried in and out of East Tyrone by helicopter. Another high-profile attack of the East Tyrone Brigade was carried out on 11 January 1990 near Augher, where a Gazelle helicopter was shot down.