February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Anne Cadwallader and Patrick Markey
BELFAST — The high-explosive bomb detonated under a London bridge last Thursday has heightened fears of a renegade republican bombing campaign in England.
No group has claimed responsibility for the early-hours explosion under Hammersmith Bridge, but British and Irish sources believe the Real IRA may have been behind the bombing.
The group is opposed to the Good Friday peace agreement and was responsible for the devastating Omagh bombing two years ago.
No one was injured in the west London bombing, but it did cause slight damage to the bridge, which has been the target of an IRA bomb attack in 1996. The blast shattered windows in nearby houses and snarled traffic as investigators closed off the immediate area.
Security in London has tightened as fears grew of a new campaign of violence by dissident republicans. Police discovered the device contained between 1-2 kilograms of high explosives.
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The head of Scotland Yard’s anti-terrorist branch, Alan Fry, told the BBC that links to Irish paramilitary groups were not being dismissed.
"I am not going to speculate, but clearly they would be a line of inquiry," he said.
Sinn Fein was quick to denounce the bombing.
"The overwhelming majority of nationalists and republicans support the Sinn Fein leadership’s efforts, support the efforts of the SDLP and the Irish government," Martin McGuinness said. "I think people who are involved in that type of behavior should respect what the people want and stop their behavior immediately."