Adams set up Belfast IRA's death squad, claims author

Gerry Adams set up a secret unit within the IRA which executed and buried suspected informers in the early 1970s, a new book has claimed.

The Sinn Fein leader's assertion that he was never a member of the organisation is challenged in A Secret History of the IRA, published today.

The west Belfast MP, it claims, was the head of the Provisionals in the city in November 1972, a month before the widow Jean McConville vanished from her home in the Divis Flats, leaving her 10 young children orphans.

The book, by the veteran journalist Ed Maloney, goes on to allege that Mr Adams set up clandestine cells nicknamed "the unknowns", which were responsible for carrying out the secret execution and burial of the "disappeared" – 10 suspected informers.

Mr Maloney goes on to claim that Mr Adams must have ordered or at least approved of the execution of Mrs McConville, whose family have vehemently denied that she was an informer. "It is inconceivable that such an order would have been issued without his knowledge," he said.

Last night her daughter, Helen McKendry, said: "I'd like him to come and talk directly to me and to tell me exactly why my mother was shot."

A campaign started by families of the "disappeared" generated huge public interest in the late 1990s, winning the support of the then US President, Bill Clinton, as well as the Irish and British governments. The IRA eventually admitted in the late 1990s that it was behind the disappearances and undertook to locate the secret graves. Despite extensive excavations on Templetown beach in Co Louth, where Mrs McConville was believed to be buried, her remains were never found.

Many allegations have been made about Mr Adam's paramilitary activities, which he has consistently denied.

Last night a Sinn Fein spokesman said that its president had no comment to make about the book. In July, however, Mr Adams denied ever being a member of the IRA.

Security sources had alleged he was a leading figure in the organisation on 21 July 1972, Bloody Friday, when IRA bombs claimed the lives of seven civilians and two soldiers. Mr Adams rejected this claim on the eve of the 30th anniversary of the atrocity, during which Belfast was blasted by 27 bombs and more than 130 people were injured.

"I have been active, and it's a matter of public record, in Sinn Fein for all of my time within republican politics," he said, adding: "I have not been a member of the IRA."

The new book distances Mr Adams from Bloody Friday, stating that he did not initiate the botched operation, in which IRA warnings failed to allow time to clear the streets, and adding that he was furious when he heard of the carnage.

The organisation apologised for killing civilians during its 30-year terror campaign in the week before the anniversary. It offered "sincere apologies and condolences" to the families of "non-combatants" it had murdered.