Two arrested over N. Ireland car bomb; new IRA suspected

londonderry — Two men were arrested early on Sunday over a car bomb attack in Northern Ireland’s Londonderry and police were looking into whether the new IRA militant group was responsible, officers said.

The men in their twenties were detained hours after the explosion on Saturday evening outside the city’s courthouse, Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hamilton said.

“Fortunately it didn’t kill anybody but clearly it was a very significant attempt to kill people here in this community,” he said.

Hamilton said the main focus of the investigation was on the New IRA — one of a small number of groups opposed to a 1998 peace deal that largely ended three decades of violence in the British-run province. They have carried out sporadic attacks in recent years.

Saturday’s blast came at a time when police in both Northern Ireland and European Union-member Ireland have been warning that a return to a hard border between the two after Brexit, complete with customs and other checks, could be a target for militant groups.

Politicians from all sides — including Sinn Fein, the former political wing of the nationalist Irish Republican Army (IRA) condemned the explosion.

“Shame on you. Shame on you and stop,” said Mary Lou McDonald, leader of Sinn Fein which signed the peace agreement. She told BBC Northern Ireland that the blast was an “outrageous attack”.

The Northern Ireland police force said it was just given minutes to evacuate children and hundreds of hotel guests before the explosion of what they described as a highly unstable, crude device that could have detonated at any time.

Officers on patrol spotted a suspicious vehicle at the scene at about 1955 GMT, then received a warning five minutes later that a device had been left there, the force said. —