Dissidents warn of new violence after bomb find
Dissident republicans today threatened new violence after police foiled a huge car bomb attack in Derry.
As detectives questioned two men about a 1,200lb fully primed device, sources close to the Real IRA, the group behind the Omagh atrocity, warned there would be no let up.
One said: “To doubt our sincerity, our determination would be rather stupid.”
Police said they seized the bomb close to the Foyle Bridge after a patrol spotted a Toyota Hiace van acting suspiciously.
But it is believed they may have been acting on an intelligence tip-off in the latest in a series of failed attacks by the rogue republicans.
Within the past 12 months devices have been intercepted in Belfast, Derry and in Dublin.
The 1,200lb device was three times larger than the bomb used in the August 1998 Real IRA attack on Omagh which killed 29 people and unborn twins.
It was ready to be triggered when it was discovered yesterday, and security sources believe it was destined for one of the police stations or British army bases in the city.
The men arrested, aged 33 and 24, were taken for questioning at an undisclosed location.
Security sources insisted the seizure was down to good fortune and alert officers.
“Usually when you find something like that there’s a specific operation against known terrorists. But it seems this was just good police work,” said one.
But the history of aborted bombings has led others to claim the dissident organisations are now heavily infiltrated by informers.
Dissident sources claimed the scale of the bomb, pointed to a new determination to intensify the terror campaign.
“The size is indicative of where it was going,” one said.
“People make this big thing about how the Provisional IRA were this and that, but the so-called dissidents are every bit as determined as they were in their day when they were functional.
“There is a lot of expertise there. Maybe it’s time people sat up and took notice.”
