SAS hero Andy McNab believes he will be pulled in to ‘witch hunt’ probe into killings by British troops in Northern Ireland
SAS hero Andy McNab believes he will be pulled in to a “witch hunt” probe into killings by British troops in Northern Ireland.
The decorated Bravo Two Zero vet, 56, played a key role in five IRA deaths.
He said: “I’m sure it’s only a matter of time.”
He also calls on Theresa May to step in and halt “the madness” of the major new probe.
As many as 1,000 ex-servicemen, many in their 60s and 70s, will be viewed as manslaughter or murder suspects in the multi-million pound trawl that sparked fury among MPs.
Alarmingly, McNab also warned how the huge new Police Service of Northern Ireland investigation could have a crippling effect on serving soldiers today.
The 56-year-old trooper-turned-author told The Sun: “I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before I get a letter telling me to come to some police interview, or turn up in court at such and such a time.
“I will stand up and explain everything I did out there any why.
“I have zero to hide, because we did the right thing – we will not be victims here.”
Downing Street yesterday blasted the Northern Ireland police probe – led by the newly created Legacy Investigations Branch – for singling out ex-soldiers, while it is supposed to examine unresolved cases on every side of the long war.
But No10 still refused to intervene to halt it.
The PM’s official spokeswoman said: “Police investigations are a matter for the PSNI, who act totally independently of Government.
“We do think that it is wrong that investigations into Northern Ireland’s past focus almost entirely on former police officers and soldiers, and it is important to recognise that the overwhelming majority of those who served did so with great bravery and distinction.”
Politicians reacted in fury to our revelation yesterday and also turned their fire on ministers.
Army officer-turned-Tory MP Johnny Mercer dubbed the probe’s effect of forcing veterans to relive their war traumas as “punishing those to whom we owe the most”.
Afghanistan vet Mr Mercer added: “This is what happens when you don’t get a grip on a system that has blown up completely out of control”.
Also asking the PM to act, McNab added: “We’re clearly looking at a witch hunt here.
“Most of the soldiers involved in this would be aged around 20 at the time, just trying to do a very difficult job.
“We were there to protect civilians getting murdered.
“It makes me feel really angry.
“Why are the government allowing this to happen?
“It bewilders me.”
McNab revealed he played a key role in the deaths of five IRA men during more than a dozen tours and trips to Ulster in the 1970s and 80s.
The first was while he was a young squaddie in the regular Army, when he shot suspected terrorist Peadar McElvenna during a firefight in 1979 aged just 19 years-old.
McElvenna was part of a five-strong IRA gang preparing to launch a rocket attack from a cattle truck that McNab’s regular Army patrol stumbled across on a South Armagh council estate.
He was awarded the Military Medal for facing down the team.
The details of the other four killings that McNab was closely involved in remain classified as they took place during secret SAS operations.
The veteran SAS hero – who lead the 1991 Gulf War Bravo Two Zero patrol – also called on Mrs May to consider the probe’s effect on soldiering today.
He said: “The Prime Minister need to have a long think about the dangerous consequences of this.
“It’s not just the effect this will have on veterans, and all the anguish it stirs up again.
“Will it lead to a generation serving now who will be too frightened to take difficult decisions?
“If they‘re wondering what might happen to them 20 or 30 years down the line, will they hesitate?
“That puts lives in danger right now.
“Army officers will no look at what’s happening, and start rewriting what they teach their young lads to protect them from a future court case.”
Troops’ supporters have highlighted the stark contrast between Northern Ireland vets’ fate and dozens of convicted freed from jail and given immunity from any new prosecution.
McNab also called into question the effect the new investigations will have on the victims of Irish terrorism.
He said: “Not only are the security forces made to suffer this madness, but also the families of the thousands of civilians that were murdered during the so call Troubles.
“And what about the lad who lost his legs to an IRA bomb and is still in a wheelchair 30 years on?
“Does he get another investigation?”
McNab added: “Calling it The Troubles makes it sound like it wasn’t as bad as all that.
“Actually, it was a war.
“A really grubby and difficult war.
“And it should still be seen in that light – not judged through the lens of peaceful streets that we see today.
“People are now trawling over split second, life and death decisions 30 years on, with no idea of the context in which they were made.”
While soldiers killed 302 people between 1969 and 1998 in Ulster, a total of 1,441 serving British military personnel died in the province – 722 of them in paramilitary attacks.
Defence ministry officials yesterday said all lawyers’ fees incurred by vets during the probe will be picked up by them.
An MOD spokesperson said: “The overwhelming majority of those who served in Northern Ireland did so with great bravery and distinction.
“Any member of the military affected by this process will rightly be supported throughout and will receive free MOD legal representation.”
It also emerged this week that the first file on legacy killings by troops – over the 1972 Bloody Sunday massacre – has now been sent to Northern Ireland prosecutors for a charging decision.
Senior PSNI officers have told of their unhappiness at having to take on the massive new probe.
As The Sun has revealed, it was ordered after a critical report by the police watchdog, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary.
In a startling judgement, the HMIC tore up a 40 year-old ruling used by a previous PSNI team probing legacy cases – the Historical Enquiries Team –that differentiated between state employees and terrorists’ killings.
Signalling his dissatisfaction with Ulster politicians’ bickering over legacy cases, the PSNI’s Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hamilton said in a statement: “If there is a political decision to establish a Historical Inquiries Unit, the Legacy Investigation Branch’s responsibilities will pass to it”.
UKIP’s Deputy Chair Suzanne Evans added: “Terrorists pardoned.
“The troops they targeted investigated.
“What kind of a mad world are we living in?”