Police say ‘New IRA’ are likely behind Derry bomb
FOUR men have been arrested in connection with a car bomb explosion in Derry on Saturday night.
Police have said they believe that a dissident IRA group – the New IRA – may be behind the bombing which took place at around 8pm on Bishop’s Street outside the city’s courthouse.
No-one was killed or injured in the blast but CCTV footage shows that moments before the explosion a group of young people had walked by the car.
Saoradh, the political wing of the New IRA, said that the attack is ‘believed to have been a large mine attack by republican revolutionaries’. The group also said the attack comes on the eve of the centenary of the Soloheadbeg ambush in Tipperary in 1919, which resulted in the death of two RIC policemen and is widely regarded the event that started the War of Independence.
The chairman of Saoradh is Dublin man Brian Kenna, who was previously convicted of Provisional IRA membership.
According to Saoradh, the first two men to be arrested were take in early morning raids in Derry. One is the home of an activist with the dissident republican group, Éirígí, and the home of a Saoradh member, according to the Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association.
Speaking on the bombing, PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hamilton said: ‘Our main line of inquiry is against the New IRA. The New IRA, like most dissident republican groups in Northern Ireland, is small, largely unrepresentative, and determined to drag people back to somewhere they don’t want to be.’
According to Mr Hamilton, a pizza delivery driver was hijacked by two armed men on Saturday night and his car was packed with explosives. Mr Hamilton condemned the attack as ‘unbelievably reckless’.