British soldier shot dead
Massive Strabane landmine
A single shot from a sniper killed a British soldier in
Bessbrook, South Armagh on Wednesday night. The soldier was
at a permanent vehicle checkpoint close to the
heavily-fortified Bessbrook British Army Base when the
attack occurred. The checkpoint was set up last October in a
bid to strengthen security near the base.
d the massive IRA landmine located on the main Strabane to
Omagh A5 Road late on Sunday evening 9 February - exactly
one year after the IRA bomb on the Isle of Dogs in London -
was intended for a crown forces patrol, a supplied IRA
statement confirmed this week.
West Tyrone Brigade, Oglaigh na hEireann said, ``the mine
contained 1,200lbs of explosive mix in three 45 gallon drums
and was close to a wall on a building site at the Melmount
Road. As an ASU waited for a British mobile patrol, noted
and timed over a number of weeks driving on this road, they
noticed a large group of civilians moving about nearby.
``Forced to abandon the mine, the Volunteers disarmed the
firing pack linking the command wire to the three drums.
They then phoned a local organisation around 4.pm saying
where the mine could be located''.
British army technical officers moved in with extreme
caution around daylight at 8.30am on Monday morning and at
5.30pm finally gave the RUC permission to reopen the A5
road.
Around the same time Volunteers of the East Tyrone Brigade
were moving into position to ambush an RUC armoured patrol
on the outskirts of Pomeroy. In a statement the IRA
discounted media reports that a ``coffee jar'' fragmentation
grenade was thrown.
``Our Volunteers, aware of frequent RUC mobile patrols
leaving the RUC barracks, set up a horizontal mortar unit.
Shortly before 9pm on Monday 10 February as an RUC armoured
vehicle drove past our Volunteers' position on the
Cavanakeeran Road beside the Parkview Estate the mortar was
launched. The blast rocked the vehicle and injured an RUC
member.''
On Wednesday evening 5 February another horizontal mortar
was fired in Newell Road in nearby Dungannon. Local people
reported seeing an RUC patrol leaving the scene after an
explosion was heard just after 11.pm. In this incident no
casualties were reported.
Once again countering bogus RUC claims, the IRA's North
Armagh Brigade refuted a report that they had used a ``coffee
jar'' during an attack in Lurgan. They pointed out that
during the previous day three separate groups of four
British APCs full of troops were observed travelling to
Lurgan along the M1 around 2.30pm to reinforce troops
already in place around the closed Belfast to Dublin
railwayline.
``Despite the presence of the large force of British troops
backing up RUC mobile support units on Thursday 13 February
in the nationalist Kilwilkie estate, our Volunteers were
able to evade these and move a shoulder-fired rocket
launcher into the area,'' the IRA stated.
``Around 10.15pm as a number of RUC vehicles drove along
Levine Road, one of the main routes through the estate, the
grenade was fired at the rear of the last vehicle and
exploded, rocking the vehicle. No injuries were reported.''