The IRA members fired at the loyalists, some of whom were positioned on the roofs opposite. Jim Magee, a local loyalist, said he saw wounded people lying on the road and asked the police (RUC) for help. According to Magee, "[they] said 'if you have anything, get it out and protect your people'. So we got an old rifle and went into Frazer Street and started firing back". The security forces were deployed in the area at the time, but did not intervene to end the fighting. Shortly after the shooting began, Stormont MP Paddy Kennedy went with Short Strand residents to the local RUC base and demanded protection for their homes. Across the River Lagan, in the Markets area, other IRA members assembled and prepared to reinforce the Short Strand should it be invaded. British soldiers eventually arrived in armoured vehicles and cordoned off the roads around the Short Strand, which denied the IRA "any hope of reinforcement". At the time, the British Army said that its soldiers fired no shots because "owing to the confused situation, it was impossible to identify targets". British Army Colonel Mike Dewar later said: "The whole incident had taken its course because the Army was so chronically overstretched that night in Belfast. The one spare platoon in the whole of west Belfast was not able to get through rioting Protestants to the Short Strand". Journalist Tony Geraghty wrote that sometimes "The gunfire eased long enough to allow an occasional British Army personnel carrier (a 'Pig') to whine past, illuminated by the flames in a token gesture of law-and-order". Another journalist who witnessed the battle, Peter Taylor, later said:The shooting intensified but the soldiers still declined to intervene and separate the two sides – either because they felt they were not numerically strong enough or because they did not wish to get caught up in the middle of a sectarian fight, in the darkness, with shots being fired by both sides. Liz Maskey, who was a volunteer nurse that night, said that the Short Strand was surrounded by loyalists and claimed they attacked her ambulance as it tried to leave the area. The loyalists withdrew after about five hours, as dawn broke. IRA leader Billy McKee claimed that his unit had fired 800 rounds during the battle. Three people were killed in the fighting. At least 26 were wounded—including Billy McKee, who was shot five times. Republicans and loyalists disagree over who started the violence and fired the first shots. Republicans claim that the violence was started by a mob of loyalists returning from an Orange march.