BRITISH army bomb disposal experts yesterday defused a massive bomb on the outskirts of Strabane, Co Tyrone.
The device, with a firing pack and a command wire, contained 1,500 lb of home made explosives. It was similar to the IRA bomb which devastated London's Canary Wharf area almost exactly a year ago. That explosion signalled the ending of the IRA's ceasefire.
The bomb, packed into plastic bags and hidden in three 45 gallon drums, was found on Sunday evening in a building site an hour after an anonymous phone caller, claiming to represent the IRA, said the bomb had been abandoned on the outskirts of the town near the Fir Trees Hotel on the main Strabane to Omagh Road.
The operation to defuse the device started after 8.30 a.m. and it was declared safe by technical officers at 5.30 p.m. Forensic officers removed the explosives for examination. They want to establish the source of the fertiliser used to construct the bomb and whether the firing pack to detonate the bomb had failed or had not been activated.
The bomb was discovered less than two days after the IRA said in a statement that there was no immediate prospect of a renewal of its ceasefire.
Supt Mervyn Hood, sub divisional commander of the RUC in Strabane, rejected the IRA's claim that the bomb had been abandoned.
"You don't abandon a bomb with a firing pack and with command wires attached to it. This was absolute madness. This bomb was ready for use and the target was probably a passing security force patrol. However, given the size of the bomb, had it gone off as planned, the loss of life within a radius of 150 yards would have been horrific and remember the hotel is only 50 yards away. There would also have been widespread damage to dozens of properties.
Immediately after the warning phone call, the main road was sealed off. Residents were moved out of 26 nearby houses and the hotel, crowded with 250 customers and residents, was evacuated. Residents of an old folks' home nearby were also evacuated.
The incident was condemned by the SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, and by the chairman of Strabane District Council, Cllr Edward Turner.
When the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, was over the Strabane bomb at a Belfast press conference he replied: "In 1993, and perhaps even in 1992, in the jaws of a very intense IRA campaign, a very intense loyalist campaign - loyalists were killing one Catholic a day in this city - and in the teeth of a very, very aggressive British army campaign, the British government were talking to us.
Meanwhile yesterday, three men, believed to be loyalists, were arrested around noon outside the Co Armagh town of Markethill and taken for questioning to Gough Barracks in Armagh. A number of items, thought to include weapons and masks, were taken for examination. The area was sealed off for several hours.
At Pomeroy, Co Tyrone, a British army bomb disposal team examined a mortar bomb which was launched at an RUC car on Sunday night.