Up to 60 houses evacuated in Newtownhamilton, South Armagh, after suspect device left in abandoned car
A South Armagh village was sealed off today after a suspect device was abandoned.
Up to 60 houses were evacuated in the Newry Street and Commons area of Newtownhamilton, near the border with the Irish Republic. Families were moved to Newtownhamilton high school.
Army technical officers went to the scene after the device was left in an abandoned car at about 2am. Dominic Bradley, an SDLP assembly member for the region, said there were similarities to bombs left by dissident republicans that exploded in Newry in February and close to MI5's Northern Ireland headquarters in Holywood, County Down, yesterday.
"It seems as if this incident has a similar modus operandi to that used at Newry courthouse and Palace Barracks, in that a suspect vehicle has been left at the gates of the police station," he said. "Newtownhamilton is quite a large, heavily fortified station. If it were to explode it would do negligible harm to the actual police station but would be more harmful for other buildings nearby."
There is confusion over which dissident republican group was behind yesterday's bomb attack on the MI5 base. Last night the Real IRA issued a second statement denying involvement.
Another organisation opposed to the peace process, Óglaigh na hÉireann, is now being blamed for the blast. ONH contains a number of ex-IRA members who were bomb makers for the Provisionals during the Troubles. The terror group was behind the car bomb that seriously injured PSNI constable Peadar Heffron at the start of this year.