Operation Flavius was a military operation in which three members of a Provisional Irish Republican Army ( IRA ) cell were shot dead by undercover members of the British Special Air Service ( SAS ) in Gibraltar on 6 March 1988 . The three — Seán Savage , Daniel McCann , and Mairéad Farrell ( members of Provisional IRA Belfast Brigade ) — were believed to be mounting a car bomb attack on British military personnel in Gibraltar . Plain-clothed SAS soldiers approached them in the forecourt of a petrol station , then opened fire , killing them . All three were found to be unarmed , and no bomb was discovered in Savage 's car , leading to accusations that the British government had conspired to murder them . An inquest in Gibraltar ruled that the SAS had acted lawfully , while the European Court of Human Rights held that , although there had been no conspiracy , the planning and control of the operation was so flawed as to make the use of lethal force almost inevitable . The deaths were the first in a chain of violent events in a fourteen-day period . On 16 March , the funeral of the three IRA members was attacked by a loyalist wielding pistols and grenades , leaving three mourners dead . Then , at the funeral of one of the mourners , the IRA shot two undercover British soldiers who had driven into the procession
funeral of the three IRA members was attacked
Milltown Cemetery attack
Operation Flavius