BELFAST, Northern Ireland?In a quick response to the IRA’s historic decision to begin disarming, Britain started demolishing two army watchtowers on Northern Ireland’s border Wednesday.

Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid said workers began dismantling towers on Sturgan Mountain and Camlough Mountain in South Armagh, a region of high Irish Republican Army support bordering the Republic of Ireland.

Demolition of a lookout post at Newtownhamilton, another South Armagh border town and an army base at Magherafelt, a predominantly Roman Catholic town in the province’s center, would begin this week, Reid said.

Reid also said Britain and Ireland would not seek extradition of IRA members for offenses committed before April 10, 1998, the date of the Good Friday peace accord.