London bomb blast

There has been another bomb blast in London, believed to be the work of the dissident IRA splinter group, “Real IRA”. No casualties were caused by last night’s bomb, half a kilo of high explosives, placed outside a post office in Hendon, north London. Only minor material damage was caused. Although no group has yet mentioned the attack, the device is similar to that planted under Hammersmith Bridge (London) last June, for which the Real IRA claimed responsibility. The British authorities classify the incident as “very worrying” because of the absence of the normal coded warning issued before such incidents, to cause material and not human damage, increasing the political impact and diminishing an alienation of public opinion. Police Commissioner Alan Fry stated that apart from worrying, the incident was “totally reckless” because it was only by chance that nobody was killed. The Real IRA are against the peace process signed by the main Republican movement, the IRA, led by Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, which has led to the setting up of a regional legislative assembly in Northern Ireland, a gradual reduction of British troops in the province and an absence of IRA terrorist attacks since 1997. It is thought that the Real IRA will increase their campaign of violence to force a new round of peace talks. Their position is that the gains made in the last “Good Friday” peace treaty were not enough because the ultimate objective is the complete unification of Ireland and a total disconnection of the six counties which constitute Ulster, or Northern Ireland, from the United Kingdom.

JOHN ASHTEAD, PRAVDA.RU, LONDON