Provos bomb six hotels as blitz switches to Ireland

Press, 22 December 1978, Page 5

Provos bomb six hotels as blitz switches to Ireland

NZPA-Reuter London Irish republican guerrillas have bombed leading hotels in Northern Ireland in a pre-Christmas blitz wh : ch has also hit mainland Britain. Scotland Yard cancelled Christmas leave for all 22,000 policemen in London after car bombs exploded in England on Monday. But bn Wednesday night guerrillas of the provisional wing of the Irish Republican Army switched the attack back to Northern Ireland itself, hitting six hotels in the province. Two hotels blazed after .he bombings and blasts caused damage at two others. Two more hotels

had bombs planted there by armed and masked men, but these did not explode and British Army Lorn b-disposal squads moved in to work on the devices. The I.R.A. later claimed responsibility for the attacks, in which eight people were cut by flying glass and one fireman slightly injured, the police said.

This was despite the fact that bars were filled with Christmas drink-rs. The police warned hotel managers that more blasts could be expected. In southern England, two men suspected of having masterminded London i.R.A. bombings on Monday remained at large, despite a big police man-

hunt which began when their car was seen.

The car, a white Opel Kadett which was later reported having been seen in the Midlands area, had been hired las* week-end •»y a man using the same driving licence used to hire three other cars in which bombs were placed. In Belfast, police and Army sources have said that a small urban guerrilla group has started exploding bombs and firing at British soldiers in Northern Ireland in the past three weeks. The group is called the Irish National Liberation Army and is believed to comprise a tightly-knit, dedicated membership of revolutionary Left-wing-ers.

It is seen as more straight-forwardly political than the main guerrilla force, the Provisional IJLA., which Left-wingers in Ireland consider to be Rignt-wing and nationalist. In the past three weeks the I.N.L.A. has exploded half-a-dozen bombs at banks and Government offices in Belfast and fired on British troops in the city centre.

An I.N.L.A. man last week lobbed a grenade at a British patrol in Londonderry, Northern Ireland’s second city, but again caused no injuries. The attacks have gone largely unnoticed, coming against a background of the renewed Provisional I.R.A. offensive.