‘Lebanon-trained team at work’

Press, 28 October 1981, Page 8

‘Lebanon-trained team at work’

NZPA London Two of the Irish Republican Army’s top bombers are believed to be orchestrating the latest ‘ bomb - wave in London. Security chiefs in Northern Ireland are convinced that explosive experts trained in Lebanon are behind the Oxford Street blast yesterday and two earlier attacks in the capital, one on an Irish Guards bus and the other aimed at the .Commander of the Royal Marines. Groups of I.R.A. Sympathisers who have been living in England for at least three years are believed to have been recruited to help in the attacks, lessening the chances of the bomb teams being caught. ; Police and Army chiefs believe the Irish-based terr rorists arrived in England just before the ending of the

I.R.A. hunger strike at the' Maze Prison to prepare for the mainland bombing campaign. , . The Provisional I.R.A. has always threatened to avenge the deaths of ten Republican hunger strikers. A security source in Belfast said yesterday: “The people helping these men have arrived on the scene to activate the terrorist cells.

“We also understand they have decided to pick specific targets, to cause as much devastation as possible and to hell with the consequences.- They are not worried-, about deaths. “We believe two or three hardened I.R.A. men are actively planning these attacks. “Some of their top men are out and'about at the moment and have recruited sympathisers in and around London. It means they will be hard to trace.”