Police knew about Omagh bomb threat - BBC

Reuters via BBC ^ | Thursday December 6, 06:58 PM | Reuters

[Benson_Carter]

BELFAST (Reuters) - British police had information that renegade republicans were planning to attack the Northern Irish town of Omagh 11 days before a bomb in 1998 killed 29 people in the province's worst guerrilla atrocity, the BBC has reported.

An investigation by the Police Ombudsman found that days before the August 15 bombing, police had been warned by an informant that an attack by republican dissidents was imminent, while another warning had mentioned Omagh and the planned date, the BBC said.

A police detective was said to have spoken to an anonymous caller on August 4 for more than 10 minutes and he passed a warning about the attack to the force's special branch.

But this warning was not passed on to the local commanding officer or police on the day, according to a draft report by the Ombudsman, the BBC said.

The Real IRA, a guerrilla group which split from the Irish Republican Army (IRA), is blamed for the Omagh bombing. The group opposes the 1998 Good Friday peace accord which ended 30 years of sectarian trouble between Catholics, who want a united Ireland, and Protestants, who want to remain part of the United Kingdom.

[Norn Iron]

I don't see any any significant differences between any nationalities. The greater differences lie within them.

[Hoplite]

Reporting the release of the investigation would appear to be somewhat contradictory, in the manner of a propaganda war.

Don't know enough about it yet to form a strong opinion either way.

[constitutiongirl]

If he accused the Republic of harbouring terrorists, he'd have to accuse Great Britian of the same.