47 McCANN AND OTHERS v. THE UNITED KINGDOM JUDGMENT The three deceased were an IRA active service unit which was planning an operation in Gibraltar; they did have in their control a large quantity of explosives which were subsequently found in Spain; and the nature of the operation was a car bomb. The risk to the lives of those in Gibraltar was, therefore, both real and extremely serious. 189. The Government further submitted that in examining the planning of the anti-terrorist operation it should be borne in mind that intelligence assessments are necessarily based on incomplete information since only fragments of the true picture will be known. Moreover, experience showed that the IRA were exceptionally ruthless and skilled in counter-surveillance techniques and that they did their best to conceal their intentions from the authorities. In addition, experience in Northern Ireland showed that the IRA is constantly and rapidly developing new technology. They thus had to take into account the possibility that the terrorists might be equipped with more sophisticated or more easily concealable radio-controlled devices than the IRA had previously been known to use. Finally, the consequences of underestimating the threat posed by the active service unit could have been catastrophic. If they had succeeded in detonating a bomb of the type and size found in Spain, everyone in the car-park would have been killed or badly maimed and grievous injuries would have been caused to those in adjacent buildings, which included a school and an old-people’s home. 190. The intelligence assessments made in the course of the operation were reasonable ones to make in the light of the inevitably limited amount of information available to the authorities and the potentially devastating consequences of underestimating the terrorists’ abilities and resources. In this regard the Government made the following observations: - It was believed that a remote-controlled device would be used because it would give the terrorists a better chance of escape and would increase their ability to maximise the proportion of military rather than civilian casualties. Moreover, the IRA had used such a device in Brussels only six weeks before. - It was assumed that any remote-control such as that produced to the Court would be small enough to be readily concealed about the person. The soldiers themselves successfully concealed radios of a similar size about their persons. - As testified by Captain Edwards at the inquest, tests carried out demonstrated that a bomb in the car-park could have been detonated from the spot where the terrorists were shot (see paragraph 116 above). - Past experience strongly suggested that the terrorists’ detonation device might have been operated by pressing a single button. - As explained by Witness O at the inquest, the use of a blocking car would have been unnecessary because the terrorists would not be expected to have any difficulty in finding a free space on 8 March. It was also dangerous because it would have required two trips into Gibraltar, thereby