MRF teams operated in plain clothes and civilian vehicles, equipped with pistols and submachine guns.
[3] In October 1972, the IRA uncovered and attacked two of the MRF's front companies—a mobile laundry service and a massage parlour—which contributed to the unit's dissolution.
It appears to have its origins in ideas and techniques developed by Brigadier Sir Frank Kitson, a senior commander in the British Army, who had created "counter gangs" to defeat the Kenya Land and Freedom Army in the Colony and Protectorate of Kenya during the Mau Mau rebellion.
[6] In March 1994, the UK's Junior Defence Minister Jeremy Hanley issued the following description of the MRF in reply to a parliamentary written question: "The MRF was a small military unit which, during the period 1971 to 1973, was responsible for carrying out surveillance tasks in Northern Ireland in those circumstances where soldiers in uniform and with Army vehicles would be too easily recognized".
[4][1] MRF operatives patrolled the streets in these cars in teams of two to four, tracking down and arresting or killing suspected IRA members.
[4] The MRF member who made a statement in 1978 opined that the unit's role was one of "repression through fear, terror and violence".
[12] In 1972, it is alleged MRF teams carried out a number of drive-by shootings in Catholic and Irish nationalist areas of Belfast, some of which were attributed to Ulster loyalist paramilitaries.
[14] The book Killing For Britain (2009), written by former UVF member 'John Black', claims that the MRF organised the bombing and helped the bombers get in and out of the area.
Immediately afterward, the security forces claimed that a bomb had accidentally exploded while being handled by IRA members inside McGurk's.
[18][10] As they passed St Thomas's School, a car stopped, and three men leapt out and began shooting at them with pistols.
An MRF team in an unmarked car approached a checkpoint manned by members of the Catholic Ex-Servicemen's Association (CESA) at the entrance to Riverdale Park South.
One of the MRF men opened fire from the car with a sub-machine gun, killing Catholic civilian Patrick McVeigh (44) and wounding four others.
[18][20] All of the men were local residents[20] and McVeigh, who was shot through the back,[6] had stopped to chat to the CESA members as he walked home.
[20] The British Army told journalists that gunmen in a passing car had fired indiscriminately at civilians and called it an "apparently motiveless crime".
[18] An inquest into the attack was held in December 1972, where it was admitted that the car's occupants were soldiers belonging to an undercover unit known as the MRF.
[21] An MRF member stated in 1978 that their intention was to make it look like a loyalist attack, thus provoking sectarian conflict and "taking the heat off the Army".
[4] As they began walking along the street, in the direction of a vigilante barricade, the MRF team opened fire on them from an unmarked car.
Witnesses said there was no gunman on the street, and police forensics experts found no evidence that McAloon or Devlin had fired weapons.
[22] On the night of 9 June 1972, Catholic civilian Jean Smith (or Smyth) was shot dead on the Glen Road.
[24][25] The Belfast Telegraph article also suggested that Smith could have been shot by the IRA, who fired on the car thinking it was carrying MRF members.
[24] On 22 June 1972, the Provisional IRA announced that it would begin a ceasefire in four days, as a prelude to secret talks with the British government.
[27] Shortly afterward, the MRF unit's car was stopped by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and the occupants were arrested.
[4] On the night of 27 September 1972, the MRF shot dead Catholic civilian Daniel Rooney and wounded his friend Brendan Brennan.
A Four Square van visited houses in nationalist West Belfast twice a week to collect and deliver laundry.
[37] Clothes collected for washing were first forensically checked for traces of explosives, as well as blood or firearms residue.
They were also compared to previous laundry loads from the same house—the sudden presence of different-sized clothes could indicate that the house was harbouring an IRA member.
[43] Following these revelations, the leaders of the IRA's Belfast Brigade planned an operation against the MRF, which was to take place on 2 October 1972.
[44] At about 11:20AM[36] on 2 October, IRA volunteers ambushed the Four Square Laundry van in the nationalist Twinbrook area of West Belfast.
[44] The other Four Square employee—a female soldier from the Women's Royal Army Corps (WRAC)—was collecting and delivering laundry from a nearby house at the time.
[44] According to some sources, the IRA claimed to have killed two surveillance officers allegedly hidden in the laundry van,[45] and two MRF members at the massage parlour.