I.R.A. bomb kills six British soldiers

Press, 17 June 1988, Page 6

I.R.A. bomb kills six British soldiers

NZPA-Reuter • Belfast Six British soldiers died when their van exploded in a ball of fire in the Northern Ireland garrison town of Lisburn on Wednesday night, in the I.R.A.’s bloodiest attack against British forces in the troubled province this decade. The Irish Republican Army, fighting to end British rule in Northern Ireland, said it carried out the attack, which coincided with the end of a charity run on Wednesday night. Witnesses said at least two of the dead were thrown from the van, which disintegrated when the bomb went off in the crowded centre of Lisburn, home of British Army headquarters in Northern Ireland.

The attack in Lisburn, 23km south-west of Belfast, appeared to be the I.R.A.’s latest retaliation for the killings last March of three Irish guerrillas by British forces in Gibraltar. The first revenge attack came on May 1 when three British servicemen were killed in the Netherlands. An I.R.A. statement threatened to send planeloads of dead British soldiers to the British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. Wednesday’s attack, the worst since last year’s Remembrance Day bombing which killed 11 people, followed a series of recent tit-for-tat killings, the latest of which was carried out by the I.R.A. earlier on Wednesday. The I.R.A. said it killed Robert Seymour, east Bel-

fast leader of the shadowy Protestant Ulster Volunteer Force, in retaliation for the deaths of three Catholics in a Belfast bar last month. The van blast came without warning as about 4000 people were dispersing after running the marathon in which a large number of soldiers from the nearby garrison took part. Five soldiers were killed on the spot and a sixth died in hospital later. Ten civilians, including an 80-year-old man and four teenagers, were injured in the blast. The death toll was the highest involving soldiers since the outlawed I.R.A. killed 18 members of the Parachute Regiment at Narrow Water in South Armagh in August, 1979, the day Lord Mountbatten

was killed by the I.R.A. Security sources said the attackers appeared to have followed the van, waited for the soldiers to disembark and then planted the device. They detonated the bomb when the van stopped at a set of traffic lights. One witness, who was travelling behind the van, said he saw two bodies, one badly burning, after they were apparently thrown out of the van. “There was smoke and then a loud explosion and I saw two bodies lying in the middle of the road,” Nigel Sands said. “One of them had no legs and one of them was burning. It was badly mutilated.” More than 2600 people have died in 20 years of bloodshed in Northern Ireland.