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Police race to stop Real IRA bomb plot
Security forces on both sides of the Irish border are hunting tonight for a dissident republican bomb, after intelligence reports the Real IRA has smuggled a large device into Northern Ireland from the south, the Guardian has learned. The alert began on Monday before Continuity IRA killed PC Stephen Carroll. He will be buried tomorrow after requiem mass in his home town of Banbridge, County Down. As border security tightened with extra checkpoints and patrols, sources in Dublin and Belfast said "intelligence traffic" indicated a plot to explode a bomb in the north, and the device had been transported across the border by car. "The red light went up on Monday and there is a panic on that the next thing to happen is a bomb somewhere in the north," one veteran security officer said yesterday. "The problem is that no one either in the PSNI [Police Service of Northern Ireland] or the Garda appears to have specific intelligence where it is destined for." The security forces believe the device is similar in size to the 300lb car bomb that dissidents left abandoned in Castlewellan, County Down last month. With political parties united in condemning the dissidents for the recent killings, the focus turned yesterday to peace rallies that took place in Belfast, Londonderry, Newry, Lisburn and Downpatrick. Five thousand people joined the demonstration in Belfast, with protesters bearing placards that read: "No going back." In Dublin the taoiseach, Brian Cowen, told the Dail that co-operation between police on both sides of the border had never been closer. He said he would be joining Northern Ireland's first minister, Peter Robinson, and deputy first minister, Martin McGuinness, in the US , where they flew yesterday for a visit lasting a week that will coincide with St Patrick's Day. "It is important that the voices of the democratic representatives of the people are heard loud and clear at this moment, when the democratic institutions which have been established by the Irish people are being challenged," he said. "Those institutions are being challenged by a tiny and unrepresentative group of evil people who have no mandate and no support. Their actions are futile. They cannot succeed and they will not succeed." Pope Benedict XVI yesterday described the murders in Northern Ireland as "abominable acts of terrorism". Meanwhile, fears over possible loyalist paramilitary retaliation in response to the upsurge in Real IRA and Continuity IRA violence eased yesterday after the Ulster Defence Association ruled out revenge attacks. Jackie McDonald, UDA leader, also praised McGuinness for his condemnation of the dissidents, who killed two British soldiers and a member of the PSNI since the weekend. Posted by: Fred 2009-03-12 |
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