Dozens of British soldiers narrowly escaped serious injury or death yesterday when a bomb placed inside an army base in Co Derry failed to explode.
The device, which consisted of a Mark-19 timer unit and three gas cylinders, each packed with home-made explosives, was defused by British army bomb disposal experts hours after the timer had exploded.
The attack took place inside the Shackleton army camp at Ballykelly, close to where 11 British soldiers and six civilians were killed in an INLA bomb attack on the Droppin' Well bar on December 6th, 1982.
It is believed the bomber or bombers breached the camp's security fence at the rear of Tamlaghtfinlagan Church of Ireland church, which backs onto to a fence surrounding the base. The bomb was planted against a wall of the accommodation block used by the 1st Battalion of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers.
A house occupied by the church sexton was damaged when the timer exploded. A back door as well as several windows were blown in, but the sexton, his wife and two of their three children escaped injury.
The explosion was within 50 yards of a hospital, the North-West Independent Clinic, but none of the patients was injured.
The timer exploded just after 3 a.m. and the blast was heard over a wide area. The seat of the explosion was located by army bomb disposal experts who then defused the gas cylinders.
The East Derry Ulster Unionist MP, Mr William Ross, said those responsible for the attack had attempted to kill as many soldiers as possible.
"The material was put together very carefully and we are extremely fortunate that the perpetrators of this incident are not having a big celebration," he said.
"It proves that the IRA have not gone away, in whatever form they choose to manifest themselves. They are there and they are as dangerous as ever.
"They also put the lives of the sick and elderly in the local hospital at risk. This underlines the fact that there must be a complete disarmament of all terrorist groups before we even contemplate bringing back the Assembly."
Meanwhile, the Church of Ireland rector in Ballykelly, the Rev Harold Given, said the sexton and his family were lucky to escape without injury. "This sadly brings back memories of the Droppin' Well bomb and it's not the first time that our parish church has been damaged in an attack like this," he said.
"The terrorists have violated and used our church grounds for their senseless act and that is disgusting. Nor did they show any consideration for the patients in the hospital which is beside both our church and the scene of the explosion."
The RUC's sub-divisional commander in Ballykelly, Supt Noel Mc Clenaghan, asked anyone with information about the attack to contact the police.
"I utterly condemn those who carried out this attack which could so easily have caused loss of life," he said.
A Government spokesman last night said the attack heightened the importance of achieving a breakthrough in the peace process.
"It is a serious cause of concern and reinforces the argument that where a vacuum occurs people will move to fill it," he said.
The spokesman said the Taoiseach spoke with the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, yesterday morning, adding contacts would continue between Irish and British officials and pro-agreement parties in the North next week.
Police in Derry were questioning two men last night in relation to the explosion at the army base.