The Kingsmill massacre: Gunmen stopped a minibus carrying eleven Protestant workmen, lined them up alongside it and shot them. Only one victim survived, despite having been shot 18 times. A Catholic man on the minibus was allowed to go free. A group calling itself the South Armagh Republican Action Force, a cover for IRA members, claimed responsibility. Although the Kingsmill massacre was in "direct response" to the killing of six Catholics the night before, the attack was planned before that. 5 January 1976: A RUC officer on mobile patrol (Clifford Evans, aged 30) was shot dead by an IRA sniper near Castledawson, County Londonderry. 13 January 1976: Two IRA volunteers (Rosemary Bleakley, aged 18, and Martin McDonagh, aged 23), along with two apparently uninvolved Catholic civilians (Mary Dornan, aged 36, and Ian Gallagher, aged 41) were killed when the bomb they were transporting exploded prematurely in North Street, Belfast. 17 January 1976: A British soldier Mark Ashford (aged 19) was shot dead in an IRA gun attack on a British checkpoint in Derry City. 17 January 1976: A Catholic civilian, Seamus O'Brien (aged 25), was found shot dead by the IRA at junction of Glen Road and Glenside Road, Andersonstown, Belfast; the IRA claimed he was an informer. 22 January 1976: An off-duty UDR soldier, John Arrell (aged 32), was shot dead while driving his firm's minibus home from work, by an IRA sniper in Claudy, County Londonderry. 22 January 1976: A Catholic civilian, Kieran McCann (aged 20), was shot dead at his workplace in Eglish, near Dungannon, County Tyrone, by the IRA as an alleged informer. 30 January 1976: A civilian, John Smiley (aged 55), was killed in an IRA bomb attack on the Klondyke Bar, a pub reportedly frequented by paramilitaries in the loyalist Sandy Row area of Belfast. 6 February 1976: Two RUC officers, James Blakely (aged 42) and William Murtagh (aged 31), were fatally wounded in an IRA gun attack while on foot patrol in the Cliftonville area of Belfast. Murtagh died the following day. 7 February 1976: Two Protestant teenagers, Rachel and Robert McLernon (aged 18 and 16, respectively), were killed by an IRA booby-trap bomb, intended for members of the security forces, which had been hidden in an abandoned crashed car, Tyresson Road, Cookstown, County Tyrone. 12 February 1976: An IRA volunteer Frank Stagg (34) died on his 62nd day of a hunger strike