The World - News from July 5, 1988

Gibraltar’s coroner ordered seven British soldiers involved in the killing of three unarmed Irish Republican Army guerrillas in the British colony last March 6 to appear at an inquest Sept. 6. Felix Pizzarello told a preliminary hearing he wanted to hear evidence in person and not through written statements. The seven, believed to be members of Britain’s elite Special Air Service, were identified only by the letters A to G. British lawyers told the coroner’s court that the men would decline to appear unless their identities were shielded to prevent retaliation by the outlawed IRA. The three guerrillas were shot to death in an ambush that the British government said averted a major bomb attack in the colony.