Paisley Jnr accuses IRA of bomb attack

Ian Paisley Jnr has accused the IRA of trying to kill a Catholic police recruit in Northern Ireland to try to extract concessions from the Government.

A recent recruit to the new Police Service of Northern Ireland escaped unharmed after a bomb exploded under his car in Co Antrim.

The officer, due to go on his first posting at a police station in Derry on Monday, was badly shaken by the blast.

Mr Paisley, a member of Northern Ireland's Police Board, said he had no doubt that the IRA was responsible.

"I put it to the minister that the information I have received from security sources was that this was a republican-type device," he said.

He went on: "I have no doubt that the IRA is orchestrating events in an event to stretch police and army resources and in a bid to extract more concessions for republicans from the government."

The Catholic police officer was the first PSNI recruit to be targeted by terrorists since the new service came into being in November. He was among the first batch of graduates at the PSNI training college at their graduation ceremony in April.

Recruits are drawn in equal numbers from the Catholic and Protestant communities in an attempt to address the religious imbalance that existed in the PSNI's predecessor, the Royal Ulster Constabulary which was overwhelmingly Protestant.

However Sinn Fein has refused to back it on the grounds that the police reforms do not go far enough to satisfy republicans.