300lb homemade bomb was defused on Castlewellan (Northern Ireland)

[Aunt Sponge]

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Police in Northern Ireland said Saturday they had carried out a series of controlled explosions on a large homemade bomb found in an abandoned car south of Belfast.

A dissident nationalist organization claimed responsibility for the device in a call to local media and the police said they were investigating that claim.

The bomb, packed with 300 pounds (136.1 kg) of explosives, was defused in Castlewellan, a town around 30 miles south of Belfast.

"The people who carried this out showed a callous disregard for the lives of everyone in our community," Superintendent Greg Blain said in a statement.

"Those who operate under various flags of convenience are simply terrorists and criminals who wish to drag everyone back to the dark days of the past by using violence as a so-called political tool," he said.

Blain said police received a call about a bomb Tuesday and the abandoned car, parked close to local houses and schools, was discovered later that day.

The controlled explosions to make the device safe were carried out over a number of days.

Three decades of sectarian violence in the British-ruled province ended in 1998 with a peace deal between the Irish Republican Army, which seeks a united Ireland, and pro-British Protestant groups.

But sporadic violence continues and armed republican dissidents and pro-British loyalist groups continue to be involved in paramilitary and criminal activities.

Earlier this month, the head of the police in the Republic of Ireland said dissident republicans remained a serious threat.

"While their capability is still somewhat questionable, and I wouldn't like to underestimate it, their intentions, it would seem to me, are still quite focused in carrying out some meaningful, in their view, atrocity in Northern Ireland," Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy told the Irish Times newspaper.

(Editing by Jon Boyle)



http://www.reuters.com/article/world...50U2KD20090131

[Gillian_Angela]

Just when tensions were starting to subside, this happens.

I wonder if it was Sinn Fein involved? I know that the leader of Sinn Fein has been really really good in trying to compromise with the Ulster provinces. Just crazy.....