New bid to solve killing of soldiers in Troubles

chaos to strengthen its Yemeni operations.

Al Qaeda’s attempts to boost its operations in Yemen have been greatly helped by Iran’s decision last September to release five senior members of al-Qaeda’s ‘‘management council’’ in return for an Iranian diplomat who was kidnapped in the Yemeni capital Sana’a.

Among those released by Tehran were Saif al-Adel, the group’s head of military operations who was tasked with helping al Qaeda to regroup in the aftermath of bin Laden’s assassination.

There have even been unconfirmed reports that Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian-born cleric who replaced bin Laden as al-Qaeda’s leader, has relocated to Yemen from Pakistan after becoming concerned that he might be the target of another US-led assassination operation. Ron Sandee, a former Dutch intelligence officer, said Zawahiri moved to Yemen ‘‘in the early part of 2015’’ after becoming concerned that his security could no longer be guaranteed at his safe house in Rawalpindi. So far there has been no independent corroboration of Sandee’s claims.

Syria is another country where al-Qaeda is actively seeking to strengthen its presence. After initially being side-lined by Isis’ more fanatical tactics, al Qaeda is working closely with Islamist allies such as the Nusra Front to assert its authority. The latest estimates suggest that there are around 150 al Qaeda terrorists based in Syria, many of whom are as eager to carry out terror attacks against the West as they are to secure the overthrow the regime of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

The fear now is that, as al Qaeda tries to reassert its authority over its rivals in Isis, the group will succeed in carrying out a terrorist attacks against the West. And then the decision by the British and American governments to abandon Afghanistan to its fate will seem very short-sighted indeed. Families of hundreds of soldiers whose murders during the Troubles in Northern Ireland remain unsolved have been given new hope by the government that their cases will be reviewed.

Surviving relatives of soldiers killed on tours of duty in the province have complained they had been ignored by investigation units and victim support processes created since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

Now, the government has said it is working urgently to ensure a new legacy investigation team will treat all victims of the conflict equally.

‘‘It is true that current structures for dealing with legacy cases often focus disproportionately on cases where the state was involved or alleged to be involved, leaving families in other cases feeling overlooked and disregarded,’’ a spokesman said.

‘‘Any new legacy legislation would establish investigatory bodies that are fair, equitable, balanced, proportionate and transparent.

‘‘The government will not be party to any rewrite of history and will not forget the fact that around 90 per cent of all deaths in the Troubles were caused by terrorists.’’

The move followed a meeting last week between Ben Wallace, the Northern Ireland Office minister and a former soldier, and the families of four soldiers from the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers who were killed or injured while off duty on an angling trip in County Fermanagh in May 1984.

Robert Huggins, 29, and Thomas Agar, 35, died when an IRA bomb exploded under their car. Peter Gallimore, 27, died months later from his injuries. Their colleague Clive Aldridge was seriously injured but survived and died recently.

Craig Agar, who was eight when his father was killed, said he felt that the murders and those of other soldiers had been ‘‘passed over’’ by previous investigators.

‘‘I’ve been stonewalled for years so it was very encouraging to meet the minister,’’ Agar said.

‘‘We’ve been to Northern Ireland and the help and support for victims and relatives there is very well organised. In contrast, the relatives of soldiers from England are completely ignored.

‘‘My mother was given £10,000 (NZ$21,360) by the army when my dad died and then left to her own devices.’’

Agar said he had received just two letters from the now-defunct Historical Enquiries Team, one in May 2013 saying his father’s death was to be reviewed and one seven months later saying the unit had been suspended.

The province’s criminal justice system is widely seen as overloaded with inquests, inquiries and investigations looking at cases from the Troubles. The UK government wants new bodies to examine historical cases, but progress is held up by disagreements between the political parties in Northern Ireland.