Tag: Car Bomb

  • Car bomb explodes outside NI police station

    Car bomb explodes outside NI police station

    A car bomb has exploded outside a police station in Northern Ireland, injuring two people, days after the final formal steps for the peace process in the province were put in place.

    Police northern Ireland

    The device blew up at the Newtownhamilton police station late Thursday night after a warning was telephoned to a Belfast hospital, police said.

    A car bomb was defused at the same spot in the county of Armagh 10 days ago. The Continuity IRA, which opposes the peace process and last year killed a police officer in the bloodiest three days in Northern Ireland for more than a decade, claimed responsibility for that bomb.

    A day earlier another republican group opposed to the peace process, the Real IRA, had detonated a bomb near the Northern Ireland offices of domestic spy agency MI5. The Real IRA shot dead two British soldiers last year, two days before the killing of the police officer.

    The latest attacks were apparently timed to coincide with the transfer of police and justice powers from London and the appointment of Northern Ireland’s first justice minister.

    The moves are the last formal steps under a process, launched by a 1998 peace deal, that has resulted in self-rule for the province by a government representing both Republicans and Unionists.

    Police said they were investigating reports of shots being fired before Thursday’s bombing, which shattered windows and forced homes to be evacuated and residents to be put up in a high school.

    “Those who planted this bomb want to drag Northern Ireland back to the dark days of murder and mayhem, they want to undermine the political process, they want politics to fail,” said David Ford, the newly-appointed justice minister.

    “I am determined that we will all continue to stand together so that they will not succeed,” Ford, the leader of the non-sectarian Alliance Party, said in a statement.

    Northern Ireland’s political leaders, First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, a former IRA commander, also condemned the attack.

    Analysts have warned that republican dissidents remain active, and police have said the risk of attack, chiefly on security forces, is severe.

    Police said the two wounded people had been taken to hospital but their injuries were not believed to be life-threatening.

    In a separate incident, a pipe bomb exploded outside a house in Coalisland in County Tyrone, shattering windows but injuring no one, police said.

    (Writing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian in Dublin; editing by Kevin Liffey)

    Reuters

  • Car Bomb Left Outside Belfast Police HQ

    Car Bomb Left Outside Belfast Police HQ

    A car bomb has been left outside the Policing Board headquarters in Belfast, though it has done no serious damage.

    Police HQ

    The 400lb car bomb partially exploded and the back of the vehicle caught fire, with two men seen escaping.

    Chief Constable Matt Baggott said: “It does appear to be a device that has partially exploded, around 400lb.

    “It is a reckless act not just in doing damage but also the potential loss of life.”

    A car was found burned out nearby in the staunchly Republican New Lodge area of the city and police are investigating whether there was any link.

    Mr Baggott added: “This attack is an attack on the well-being of everybody in Northern Ireland, this is not about an attack on policing or the Policing Board, this is an attack on young people and young people’s future.”

    Meanwhile, four people have been arrested after police exchanged gunfire with suspected dissident Republicans in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland.

    The incident took place close to the border with the Irish Republic in Garrison. It is understood that the incident was an attempt to kill a police officer who lives in the village.

    Mr Baggott said that officers fired two warning shots, which are being investigated by Police Ombudsman Alan Hutchinson.

    He added that his officers had been fired at during the exchange.

    Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Goggins said: “When attacks like these happen it brings people together with the strong message that these dissidents will not succeed.

    “Policing will continue in Northern Ireland and progress will continue.”

    The Policing Board is made up of independent members of the community and politicians who hold police to account through regular public meetings.

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