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Mon 07 Jul 2007British army role in North ends after 38 yearsThe British army ends its 38-year role in support of the police in Northern Ireland tomorrow, the longest military operation in its history, writes Dan Keenan, Northern News Editor.Operation Banner, the name given to the mobilisation of troops in Belfast in 1969 to support the RUC, formally ends at midnight tomorrow, bringing to an end a military exercise in which 763 members of British forces died.