N. Ireland leaders condemn rioters who wounded police

BELFAST, Northern Ireland - Northern Ireland leaders condemned Irish nationalist rioters yesterday who wounded 82 police officers during two nights of street clashes sparked by the province's annual parades by the British Protestant majority.

While most of the injured officers had only cuts and bruises, others suffered burns and broken hands. Two remained hospitalized: a policeman wounded in the chest and arms by a shotgun blast, and a policewoman who had a paving stone dropped on her head from a shop's rooftop.

The violence in working-class Catholic parts of Belfast and other towns came both before and after tens of thousands of Protestants of the Orange Order brotherhood marched at 18 locations across Northern Ireland in an annual show of communal strength. It was the worst rioting in Belfast since the same event exactly one year ago.

The Northern Ireland police commander, Chief Constable Matt Baggott, released video of Monday's rioting in two parts of Belfast captured by surveillance helicopters. Baggott said extensive video evidence would be analyzed to try to identify the face of each rioter.