RELATIVES of IRA men shot dead by British troops and the Royal Ulster Constabulary in Northern Ireland were today awarded compensation by European judges, who ruled that the victims' human rights had been violated.

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg found the Government had violated Article Two of its convention - guaranteeing the right to life - in four separate cases, including one which prompted allegations of a shoot-to-kill policy.

The families of each of the 12 victims were awarded £10,000 in compensation.

Ambush

The IRA suffered its worst single loss of men when eight members of the East Tyrone brigade were shot dead by the SAS in a fierce gun battle at Loughgall, Co Armagh, on May 8, 1987.

They were killed in a hail of bullets when troops opened fire on them as they launched a bomb and gun attack on the village RUC station.

The SAS laid a careful ambush for the terrorists after learning of the attack in advance.

A squad of 24 soldiers from the Hereford-based regiment, opened fire from several different directions when the heavily armed IRA unit approached the station with a 200lb bomb, its fuse lit, in the bucket of a hijacked JCB digger.

The IRA men died, all of head wounds, when the soldiers fired more than 600 bullets. The terrorists fired 70 shots.

After the court's decision relatives of the victims immediately demanded that the police and troops involved in the shootings should be charged with murder.