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Imminent Ulster car bomb attack foiled by police
Telegraph ^ | 19/04/2006 | Not stated

Posted on 04/20/2006 12:57:45 PM PDT by Irish_Thatcherite

Imminent Ulster car bomb attack foiled by police (Filed: 19/04/2006)

Police in Northern Ireland have seized 250lb of home-made explosives, foiling a potentially devastating car bomb attack.

Local youths threw petrol bombs at police after the raid A senior policeman said those behind the plot - likely to be dissident republicans - planned to explode the device "as soon as possible".

Four men were arrested during the raid on a breaker's yard in Lurgan, Co Armagh. A car was also taken away for forensic examination.

Superintendent Alan Todd, Lurgan's police commander, said the police had no knowledge of a specific target for the bomb, but said the explosives posed a huge threat in a residential area.

He said: "Material of this sort is by its very nature unstable and, therefore, people preparing these things do so with the intent to use it as soon as possible

"That means a device was being constructed for immediate use, but, more importantly, it means that unstable explosive substances, ready for use, were being prepared in what is a busy residential area behind a commercial premises."

The Continuity IRA, a splinter terrorist grouping opposed to the Northern Ireland peace process, are the main suspects.

The four men arrested, aged 22, 26, 36 and 46, were held under the Terrorism Act. They can be questioned for up to seven days before being charged.

Police later came under petrol bomb attack as tensions heightened in the area around the anti-terrorist operation.

Crowds of youths attacked police at the scene, throwing petrol bombs, bottles, stones and paint bombs.