A former paratrooper who claimed he wished to take Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness "dead or alive" on Bloody Sunday had him in his rifle sights during earlier street disturbances in Belfast, the Saville Inquiry heard today.
Soldier L said he was waiting for the order to shoot Mr McGuinness dead after seeing him throw bricks and bottles at soldiers.
The former Para claimed he saw the current Sinn Féin MP conducting a running battle with soldiers.
Ms Cathryn McGahey, counsel to the inquiry, asked whether he was sure it was Mr McGuinness. "Positive, I had him in my rifle sights and I was just waiting for the order to shoot him dead," he replied.
Mr McGuinness has already admitted being the IRA's second-in-command in Derry at the time of Bloody Sunday.
In his statement to the inquiry, Soldier L, who fired a number of shots in Derry on January 30, 1972, also controversially claimed that the former Bishop of Derry, Edward Daly - then a parish priest - concealed two rifles under his cassock.
He also claimed he saw another soldier fire so many shots into a body at point-blank range that when colleagues lifted it to put it into a body bag, it split in two.
The soldier said he saw plastic explosives at the rubble barricade in Rossville Street, where four of the victims were shot dead.
Soldier L, who was threatened with contempt of court proceedings for refusing to appear before the inquiry last month, gave evidence from behind a screen today.
Legal action began when he failed to turn up to give evidence at Methodist Central Hall in London, telling his lawyers he was feeling increasingly fearful.
However, proceedings were suspended when it was confirmed he was prepared to co-operate as long as he was screened from public view.
PA