Pipe bomb attack is denounced by SF

A Loyalist pipe bomb and a jar of nails left on the windowsill of a house in the nationalist lower Ormeau Road in Belfast has…

A Loyalist pipe bomb and a jar of nails left on the windowsill of a house in the nationalist lower Ormeau Road in Belfast has been denounced as a further attempt by dissident loyalists to derail the current Mitchell review negotiations.

A woman was alone in the house on Dromara Street when the device was discovered shortly after midnight yesterday by a male occupant of the house returning home. Neighbours were evacuated for three hours as the device was made safe.

Sinn Fein has described the foiled attack as a blatant sectarian action aimed at killing nationalists and derailing the Castle Building talks.

The party's representative, Mr Sean Hayes, said it had been deliberately placed on a busy street which would have been filled with children on their way to school the following morning.

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An RUC spokesman said if the bomb had exploded it could have caused death or serious injury. "Detectives are keeping an open mind but the incident has all the hallmarks of a sectarian attack by so-called loyalists," he added.

In Newry, Co Down, five envelopes, each containing a bullet, were intercepted at the local postal sorting office. The envelopes were addressed to prominent republicans in the south Down area, four of whom are brothers. The envelopes also contained a threatening letter signed "OV", thought to refer to the dissident loyalist grouping, the Orange Volunteers.

The Sinn Fein Assembly member for the area, Mr Conor Murphy, said he has requested a meeting with the North's Security Minister, Mr Adam Ingram, to convey his concerns as to how the men's details reached the dissident loyalists.

Meanwhile, shortly after 10 p.m. on Wednesday, three masked men armed with baseball bats entered a house in Derry view Terrace, Derry, and beat a male occupant. He sustained bruising to his arms and body and a head wound in the attack.