CIRA warns of further bomb attacks

DISSIDENT republicans opposed to the peace process in Northern Ireland yesterday warned of new bomb attacks.

As a businessman revealed how wooden shutters saved his restaurant staff from death in the latest explosion in Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, the Continuity IRA threatened to intensify its terror campaign.

With Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British Prime Minister Tony Blair due in Belfast today Some of Mr Malhotra's employees and a few shocked customers narrowly escaped injury. `

As he cleared up yesterday, the restaurateur said: "Luckily I have wooden blinds in front of my windows.

"They saved my staff because they were standing nearby in the reception area when the bomb went off and the glass could have gone straight through them."

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams yesterday said he has no evidence to offer Omagh relatives in their stg£10 million Northern Ireland High Court action later this year.

Mr Adams and four other republicans who were alleged to be members of the IRA's ruling council the year before the atrocity have been subpoenaed by some of the victims' relatives.

Mr Adams said he was surprised to be summoned to appear in court.

"I have no evidence to offer," he added.

Mr Adams said he had not yet received the subpoena but he would seek legal advice when it arrived.

Senior party members Martin McGuinness and Mitchel McLaughlin went to Omagh on the night of the bombing in August 1998 and Mr Adams visited the devastated Co Tyrone town the following day.

Mr Adams said Special Branch and British military intelligence appeared to have prior warning of a bomb attack on the town and asked if any of their representatives had been subpoenaed. "I wonder what agenda is being fulfilled here," he said.

Papers served in Belfast claim Mr Adams and the other four led the IRA when Michael McKevitt, another Provo chief, quit to head up the republican dissident group which bombed Omagh, killing 29 people.

MPs Martin McGuinness and Pat Doherty, and Brian Gillen and Brian Keenan all alleged members of IRA's ruling army council have also been subpoenaed by lawyers.

McKevitt, the IRA's former quartermaster general, is one of the five Real IRA suspects being sued by the relatives in a landmark civil action.in a bid to restore devolved government at Stormont, police chiefs ordered a tightening of security.

Police disclosed six officers suffered minor injuries as they tried to clear the area where the bomb was planted, near the town hall. There were no reports of any civilian injuries.

But sources close to the dissident terrorist organisation warned yesterday:

"The British had better be prepared. There will always be people prepared to take up arms against their rule here. This was to let the Brits know they are still there and prepared to fight."

The bomb exploded at an entrance to the offices of Fermanagh District Council in the town where the Provisional IRA murdered 11 people at a war memorial service in 1987.

The force of the blast shattered 12 windows and blew in the front door of Kamal Malhotra's Indian restaurant in Water Street.