Ahern Speaks Out Over Armagh Bomb

Justice Minister Dermot Ahern has spoken out in condemnation of the people who planted a huge bomb on a roadside in south Armagh last week.

Army experts defused the huge 600lb bomb, which had a command wire stretching across the border to the Republic, yesterday in a week long security operation near Forkhill.

Dissident republicans are being blamed, and small splinter group Oglaigh na hEireann are thought to have been responsible, rather than the Real IRA or Continuity IRA. A police patrol thought to be the likely intended target.

Mr Ahern described the attempted attack as an extremely worrying development, which could have resulted in civilian casualties.

The Justice Minister said politics and dialogue are the only way sort out the situation in the North and dissidents are ignoring the will of the Irish people.

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams said those responsible for the bomb are trying to destroy the peace process, and that the days of armed struggle are gone.

PSNI Chief Inspector Sam Cordner said local residents and security teams had been put at "significant risk".

"Their [the dissident's] actions were reckless and dangerous in the extreme. Their target may have been the police, but they did not care who they killed or injured," he said.

Mr Cordner paid tribute to the "hard work and professionalism" of his police colleagues and military experts.

It is believed the explosive was homemade and fertiliser-based, similar to the devices found in Castlewellan, Co Down and Rosslea in Fermanagh earlier this year.

(DW/GK)