Between 9 and 11 August 1971, eleven civilians in the Ballymurphy area of Belfast were shot dead by soldiers from the British Army's Parachute Regiment during the opening days of Operation Demetrius, the introduction of internment without trial. The IRA split happened four months after the arrival of the British Army, and the Provisionals were committed to ‘armed defense of the Nationalist Areas’, from loyalists and now the British Army.