The Northern Secretary has said this evening that those responsible for the latest series of sectarian attacks in the North will not derail the peace process. Dr John Reid was speaking after British Army experts made safe a bomb found at the Foyle Bridge in Derry.
The bridge has been reopened. The device consisting of home-made explosives was contained in a household bin and was primed. The Real IRA is believed to have been responsible.
GAA officials across the North have been advised to exercise extreme caution after seven security alerts at club premises in County Derry over the past 24 hours. Dissident Loyalist groups have placed crude explosive devices at several GAA grounds in the county and warned that their campaign against the GAA would continue in the weeks ahead.
British Army bomb experts defused two pipebombs at separate GAA grounds in County Derry today. The bombs were found at Boleran near Garvagh and at Gulladuff, following warnings that devices had been planted.
The security alert on the Ormeau Road in South Belfast has been declared a hoax. Earlier, the Sinn Féin offices on the Falls Road in West Belfast had to be evacuated following a security alert. It also turned out to be a hoax.
Sinn Féin Assembly member, Conor Murphy, said that the Northern Secretary should declare that the UDA ceasefire is over, following a spate of pipebomb and other attacks against Catholics. The SDLP chairman, Alex Attwood, also called on Dr John Reid to review the UDA ceasefire.
