(12 Jul 1997) English/Nat

There has been more violence in Northern Ireland on the eve of the most important day of the Protestant marching season in the province.

Gunmen wounded three British soldiers and two police officers at a checkpoint in north Belfast late on Friday.

In a separate incident an 18-year-old man was injured when gunmen opened fire at Protestants celebrating the 12th of July.

After 10 p.m on Friday night (2100 GMT), gunmen opened fire on security forces at this checkpoint on a street corner dividing nationalist and unionist communities in north Belfast.

Details of the attack were sketchy, but residents of the Catholic enclave of Ardoyne said a car with four men approached a joint police and army patrol.

The gunmen got out of the car and fired about 20 shots at the security forces. Another man then threw a grenade before speeding off in the car.

British forces immediately swarmed over the area in search of the gunmen.

The area is a bastion of support for the outlawed Irish Republican Army. But there was no immediate claim of responsibility.

However, residents did say leaflets from a previously unheard of local "defence committee" had been left in the area.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Well I just heard tonight there that this is some sort of new organisation that's declared itself to protect the nationalist. I don't think there's any difficulty in saying that the nationalist people don't need any protection here. The security forces are here to help all sides of the community. I think its disgraceful in fact that this should happen to people who are doing their duty."
SUPER CAPTION: Cecil Walker, local Ulster Unionist politician

One of the injured was taken to this hospital in Belfast.

The five, among them a policewoman, suffered mostly leg injuries, none of them life threatening .

Elsewhere in northern Belfast gunmen from an adjoining Catholic area fired at raucous Protestants celebrating around a traditional bonfire.

An 18-year-old man was hit in the leg and the crowd scattered in panic.

The attacks came after Northern Ireland's main Protestant fraternal group, the Orange Order, made an unprecedented conciliatory gesture to Catholics by agreeing to cancel or reroute four marches Saturday that Catholic militants had vowed to block.

Friday marked the "11th night illuminations", where bonfires are lit to celebrate July 12th.

The marches on this date commemorate how the forces of Protestant King William of Orange defeated the deposed Catholic monarch, James the second at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.

In the Belfast city centre Protestants did not let the incidents mar their celebrations.

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