British Army technical officers have dealt with a crude pipe-bomb type device which was placed in the letter box outside the constituency office of Sinn Féin Stormont Minister, Martin McGuinness, in Cookstown this morning. Business owners and residents from the area who were evacuated for the duration of the security alert have now returned.
Around 40 buildings, including 30 homes, offices, shops and a library around Burn Road, Cookstown, County Tyrone, were evacuated. A local councillor found the device when the office was opened by. Francie Molloy, a Mid-Ulster Sinn Féin Assembly member, claimed that it was an extension of a campaign of pipebomb attacks right across the North.
The little heard of Loyalist Action Force claimed responsibility in a telephone call, accompanied by a code word, to the newsroom of a Belfast newspaper. The same group had claimed responsibility for two attacks on homes in the Cookstown area a fortnight ago.
In a separate development, a suspicious device has been found at a GAA club at Garvagh in County Derry. British Army bomb experts have been called to the scene.
The RUC say that it was discovered this afternoon by a member of the public at the Boleran club at Coolnasillagh Road. An earlier search by the RUC at this and a number of other GAA premises in the County Derry and County Tyrone areas had failed to find anything, following a warning that devices had been placed.
The RUC have again asked members of the public to report anything suspicious discovered at such premises.
An under-car booby trap device was discovered under a Nissan Sunny van at Ashley Avenue in Armagh City early this morning. It is believed the vehicle belongs to a former Republican prisoner.
