Northern Ireland Policeman Survives Car Bomb Attack

An Irish republican armed group identified by the International Monitoring Commission last week as a major threat to the Northern Ireland peace process was today being blamed for an overnight bomb attack on a police officer.

The off-duty policeman was injured when a booby-trap bomb device exploded under his car in the border village of Spamount, County Tyrone.

Security sources on both sides of the Irish border told the Guardian today the group, known as Oghlaigh hnaEireann (Army of Ireland), was behind the attempted murder. The officer, a Catholic recruit to the Police Service for Northern Ireland (PSNI), suffered leg injuries but survived the blast.

The organization behind the attempt had a base in the Strabane and East Tyrone areas of Northern Ireland, the sources said. It was led by a former Provisional IRA prisoner opposed to the peace process, who came from a republican family in the area.

Oghlaigh hna Eireann was behind a series of firebombs and hoax bombs in Cookstown, Co Tyrone at the weekend.

Alan Lyons, an eyewitness to the explosion, which occurred at around 9.30pm BST last night, said he saw a number of local people running to the car and dragging the officer out while it was still on fire.

"They probably saved the officer's life," he said.

The Ulster Unionist councilor for the area, Derek Hussey, praised the passersby who helped the rescue the officer. Councilor Hussey said the policeman was not from the area but had been in Spamount visiting friends.

Sir Hugh Orde, the PSNI chief constable, condemned those responsible for the attack, adding that it would throw neither the police nor the community off course.

"They have not defeated the police service for the last 38 years," he said. "If they seriously think this sort of event will defeat the Police Service of Northern Ireland, they are badly mistaken. I think the communities and the police together can solve this crime."

The Local Sinn Fein MP, Pat Doherty, also condemned the bomb attack, describing it as "an absolute outrage."