Ireland ? The British army began dismantling its last five watchtowers along the Northern Ireland border Monday, a long-awaited move in response to the Irish Republican Army’s decision last year to disarm.

Soldiers from the Royal Engineers Regiment landed by helicopter on three hilltops in South Armagh, a traditional IRA power base midway between Belfast and Dublin, to begin tearing apart the heavily armored watchtowers.

Britain in the mid-1980s constructed a network of watchtowers to monitor IRA activities in South Armagh, where troops and police for decades had to travel by helicopter because of the risk of roadside bombs.

The army has dismantled eight other observation posts in the area since December 1999 as part of the peace process.