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Police Hunt Irish Dissidents Over London Bombing Friday
LONDON, Aug 3 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Police in Britain stepped up the hunt Friday for a dissident Irish group blamed for a car bomb attack in west London that injured 11 people, souring efforts to resolve the crisis in the Northern Ireland peace process.
Senior officers said it was "a completely reckless terrorist attack" which had clearly been intended "to kill or maim".
They appealed for people to be extra vigilant against a repeat attack at a pivotal time for the province, where parties are debating a make-or-break plan floated by the London and Dublin governments to rescue the peace process.
Alan Fry, head of the Metropolitan Police's "anti-terrorist" wing, blamed the incident on the Real IRA (Irish Republican Army), which opposes the peace efforts.
Fry said: "This was a calculated evil act by evil, determined terrorists who are seeking to maim and kill. It is fortunate indeed that we are not dealing with mass murder."
The device exploded inside a gray car 20 seconds after midnight (2300 GMT) near two busy pubs and the underground railway station in the center of suburban Ealing.
Witnesses described a huge bang, a roll of flame, and then a shock wave and showers of glass and debris; a busted water pipe flooded streets temporarily.
Ealing hospital said a total of 11 people were treated for shrapnel wounds, cuts and bruises, updating the earlier figure of six. None had life-threatening injuries, but three remained in hospital.
Strangely enough, police had examined the gray Saab turbo car earlier this week after it was reported abandoned in southwest London, but took no action because it was not recorded as stolen and there was no reason for suspicion. Fry said it had been bought in Ilford, east London, on July 19th by a man with a "soft" Northern Irish accent who paid 425 pounds ($600) cash.
Police at the bomb scene discovered fragments of blue plastic from a barrel-like container similar to that used in previous attacks, Fry said.
Assistant Commissioner David Veness said the Real IRA was behind more than 30 incidents in Britain and Northern Ireland since February 2000. Seven have been in London, where they are guaranteed huge publicity.
"The next few days are a particularly testing time for the politics of the peace process," he said, urging extra vigilance. "It is critical to report any suspicious activity."
Born out of a split from the mainstream IRA in 1997 through anger at its ceasefire and involvement in the peace process, the Real IRA hit the headlines a year later when it carried out the worst single atrocity of over 30 years of violence in the province.
In August 1998, 29 men, women and children were killed in a blast that ripped through the market town of Omagh, in central Northern Ireland, as hundreds of people shopped. The car bomb injured a further 200 and drew fierce condemnation from across the world.
Since the Omagh bombing it has officially been on ceasefire, but has still been blamed for a series of high-profile attacks, mainly in England, aimed at attracting maximum publicity.
Driven by a core of several dozen active members, security forces estimate that the Real IRA has a total membership of up to 200, mostly from Dundalk, in the Irish Republic, and over the border in South Armagh.
Together with an allied political party known as the 32 County Sovereignty Committee, it is firmly opposed to the peace process and committed to ending British rule in the province by force.
Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid said Friday's blast was a clear attempt to derail the peace process.
"Far from deflecting us, last night's barbaric attack should strengthen our resolve to reach agreement," he said. "No one will understand if we allow the solution that is within our grasp to slip away."
Fry said a bomb warning 27 minutes before the blast did not give a precise location, and the device, 88 pounds of home-made explosive, went off as police were cordoning off the area.
The IRA's political wing, Sinn Fein, which refused to condemn such bombings during the IRA terror campaign, said the attack was "absolutely wrong".
"I want to reassure everyone that Sinn Fein is resolutely opposed to those actions and I want to call upon those involved in those actions to stop," its leader Gerry Adams said.
The province faces its most intense political crisis since the 1998 Good Friday peace accord.
Its power-sharing government is nearing collapse amid acrimonious arguments over paramilitary disarmament, police reforms and Britain's military presence there.
The Belfast government is the heart and soul of the Good Friday deal, which itself is the cornerstone of the current peace process.
London and Dublin have given the bickering parties until Monday to respond to their plan - a package deal unveiled Wednesday which also covers police reforms and British demilitarization - but Protestant Unionists say it is worthless without a start to IRA disarmament.
Ireland was a part of Great Britain in the 19th century and into the 20th; Northern Ireland chose to remain part of Britain when a treaty freed Ireland in 1921, and in 1948, the southern part of the island became the Republic of Ireland.
But in Northern Ireland, troubles began to foment as Catholics rose up against Protestant rule, and the Catholic, pro-independence IRA began to form in 1969. After years of violence between the IRA and pro-British Protestant groups, in September 1994, the IRA supposedly began a program of disarmament, but this did not happen.
Since then, the peace accord - brokered in 1995 with the help of former Sen. George Mitchell, who also led the team that produced the Mitchell report in the Middle East this past April - has focused on bringing about a cessation of violence through disarmament of sill activist IRA groups.
If Sinn Fein, which wants to end British rule in Northern Ireland, rejects the deal, it is highly unlikely the Irish Republican Army will make the move on disarmament the plan is aimed at delivering.
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