Troops on patrol amid bombing campaign

Troops were back on the streets of another Northern Ireland town tonight as security chiefs fought to combat the growing campaign of loyalist sectarian bomb attacks on Catholic homes.

Security was stepped up in Limavady, Co Londonderry, with both the military patrolling and extra police patrols.

In recent days security has been stepped up in north Belfast, the Waterside area of Londonderry, Larne, Co Antrim and Coleraine, Co Londonderry.

The local RUC commander in Limavady, Superintendent Noel McClenaghan, said: ‘‘The increased security measures will be concentrated mainly on residential areas in order to thwart and apprehend those responsible for carrying out these evil acts.’’

The continuing attacks have been blamed on rogue elements of the Ulster Defence Association.

The Presbyterian Church Moderator in Northern Ireland, Dr Trevor Morrow, lashed out at those responsible describing their actions as ‘‘a moral outrage’’.

He accused the bombers of orchestrating a ‘‘reign of terror’’ and said he was disgusted.

‘‘This is not just black and white, this is wrong, this is evil.’’

Dr Morrow said the attacks seemed to be the work of a ‘‘militant loyalist faction’’.

‘‘Their motivations we are not sure of, but we are concerned that our Roman Catholic neighbours understand that for this to be done in the name of Protestantism is outrageous to us.’’

Northern Ireland Security Minister Adam Ingram issued a thinly-veiled warning to loyalist paramilitaries about the continuing attacks in the House of Commons on Thursday.

He said the Government was considering whether so-called ‘‘hate crime’’ law could be tailored for sectarian crimes in Northern Ireland.

The attacks continued into the early hours with the petrol bombing of the home of a couple and their nine children in Co Tyrone.

The device smashed into the front door of the house at Castlecaufield, outside Dungannon starting a fire.

The couple managed to beat out the burning hall curtain.

The children’s mother said she did not know why they had been targeted.

She said two of the children - aged from 16 years to eight months - were sleeping in the room beside the hall.

‘‘If that device had gone through their window my children would have been burned. I do fear for my children’s lives - they were panic stricken.’’

In Dungannon a security operation was mounted after a routine Royal Irish Regiment patrol discovered what they believed to be two pipe bombs in a bag together with a pair of gloves at the entrance to a housing estate.

The devices contained no explosives, but police praised the patrol for thwarting another possible sectarian attack.

In another attack in east Belfast a nail bomb shattered a window in a pensioners’ sheltered dwelling on the Newtownards Road.

Sinn Fein said the target of the attack had been the local Catholic chapel.

Meanwhile the search for the seat of an explosion reported close to the main Belfast-Dublin railway line outside Newry, Co Down, three days ago continued.

Rail travellers are being taken around the area by bus - adding to the length of travel time - until the security operation is completed.

The RUC said today that because of the terrain they had so far been unable to pinpoint where the explosion took place and appealed for members of the public who heard or saw anything to contact them.