TerrorismMajor bomb plot thwarted in Northern Ireland
Police on both sides of the Irish border have collaborated to foil a major bomb attack on a target in Belfast. Gardaí and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said the plot was linked to the arrest of two teenagers at a house just north of the border in south Armagh on Wednesday, where bomb making materials and equipment were found. Security sources note that the discovery comes after two separate dissident republican bomb attacks in Belfast’s commercial center since Friday. Security has been stepped up not only in Belfast but also along the border in the run up to Christmas as the PSNI and Garda are cooperating in an effort to thwart dissident republicans from carrying out a so-called terrorist “spectacular” during the festive period.
Police on both sides of the Irish border have collaborated to foil a major bomb attack on a target in Belfast. Gardaí and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said the plot was linked to the arrest of two teenagers at a house just north of the border in south Armagh on Wednesday.
The Guardian reports that PSNI officers discovered grinders and fertilizer used for making an explosive mix for a car bomb at the property.
The two teenagers – one 19, the other 18-year old – who were arrested Wednesday are from Dundalk in the Irish Republic.
Sources confirmed that a cross border security operation involving surveillance for several days led the PSNI to the house in south Armagh. The PNSI entered the house and found a grinder used to mix ammonium nitrate fertilizer with sugar to create the bomb.
Also on Wednesday, Garda Siochana arrested a 43-year old man in a separate house Dundalk. He was held and questioned at Drogheda Garda station under section 30 of the Republic’s Offenses Against the State Act and can be detained without charge for up to three days.
Security sources in the Republic described the discovery of the bomb making equipment as a “very significant” find. They note that the discovery comes after two separate dissident republican bomb attacks in Belfast’s commercial center since Friday. The PSNI are still looking for a suspected fire bomber who suffered burns to his head and upper body on Monday night after the incendiary device he was carrying ignited inside a golf store in Cornmarket.
On Friday a bomb concealed in a hold all partially exploded outside a restaurant in the Cathedral Quarter of the city.
The Guardian notes that security has been stepped up not only in Belfast but also along the border in the run up to Christmas as the PSNI and Garda are cooperating in an effort to thwart dissident republicans from carrying out a so-called terrorist “spectacular” during the festive period.
Meanwhile two men arrested earlier this week in connection with an attempt to bomb Belfast’s Victoria Square shopping center and the nearby Musgrave Street PSNI station on 24 November have been released without charge.
