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Bernadette Devlin (L), a Catholic civil rights activist, watches members of the Catholic community marching on February 7, 1972 in Newry in protest against the 30 January "Bloody Sunday" killing by British paratroopers of 13 Catholics civil rights marchers in Londonderry. Shortly after, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) declared that their immediate policy was "to kill as many British soldiers as possible". Since the partition of Ireland in 1921, the IRA has fought for a complete withdrawal of British troops from Northern Ireland and a reunification of the island of Ireland. But it was in 1969, when civil rights marches flared into violence, that the old IRA split and the Provisional IRA was born. Around 3,500 people have died and almost 40,000 have been injured in sectarian violence involving the IRA and pro-British-rule unionist paramilitaries--the so-called loyalists. (KEYSTONE/-/AFP/IRISH TIMES/Str) === ===