Dissident republicans tried to kill police officers in Ardoyne during violence at a disputed Orange march, the PSNI said yesterday.
Nine home-made but lethal blast bombs, some packed with coins, bolts and nails, were thrown. Six exploded injuring police officers and journalists, two of them seriously. More than 100 police officers were hurt but none was detained in hospital.
The PSNI said officers responded to the "riotous crowd" with what they called restrained and proportionate use of new plastic bullets, riot police and water cannon.
Sinn Féin criticised the police, accusing them of acting too quickly and too severely before senior members, including Gerry Adams and Gerry Kelly, had a chance to quell the crowd attacking the Orangemen and supporters. It also accused dissidents from outside the Ardoyne community of carrying out the blast bomb attacks.
The PSNI denied some Sinn Féin claims and backed its version by showing to The Irish Times video evidence of the violence and police response.
Clips of videotape, shot from helicopters at an altitude of more than 350m (1,200ft), showed nationalist protesters attacking Orangemen and their supporters. They then threw petrol bombs at police and set a hijacked car alight. The footage also showed masked men scaling the roofs of shops to throw blast bombs at police lines.
As the political controversy over the violence grew, Gerry Kelly said: "Lives could have been lost yesterday and I'm glad to be here and saying that lives were not lost. I would like to praise the Ardoyne residents and community activists, local clergy. There was weeks of work put in for this." But he criticised the PSNI for making redundant the efforts of Sinn Féin to restore calm as the trouble flared.
"There was a baton charge by the PSNI which came from behind me down into the crowd," he said "Almost immediately the water cannon was used against the crowd and stewards, as we were in the front line trying to talk to other people. I think that it entirely disempowered the stewards who were trying to manage it, including myself and Gerry Adams." The PSNI denied this, claiming video coverage showed their riot containment efforts to be fair. Supt Gary White and Asst Chief Constable Duncan McCausland said the violence was organised and premeditated and that missiles and "bags of golf balls" were provided to rioters.
"I feel my personal integrity had been challenged. I think Mr Kelly is wrong," said Supt White.
He then publicly invited Mr Kelly to view the video evidence to see why he had given his orders. The SDLP's Alex Attwood endorsed the PSNI version of events.
Mr Kelly rejected claims by North Belfast MP Nigel Dodds that the riot was premeditated. "A child can make a petrol bomb," he said. "It certainly wasn't premeditated by the people of Ardoyne. If we had not have stayed, it could have been much worse." Asked how the rioting would affect a response to Mr Adams's call for the IRA to adopt a totally political mode, Mr Kelly said: "The IRA will do whatever it will do."
At Westminster, Northern Secretary Peter Hain condemned the trouble. DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson then challenged him to exclude republicans from plans to restore an inclusive executive at Stormont.
"Do you not recognise that by requiring inclusive devolution at an executive level, you put a veto into the hands of those very people and a massive bargaining chip into their hands as well?"
Mr Hain said the trouble, though disturbing and significant, had to be seen in the context of some 3,000 Orange marches which had passed off peacefully.