Roadside soldiers' memorial blown up

A roadside memorial to the eight British soliders blown up in the Ballygawley bus bombing of 1988 has been destroyed in an arson attack.

Wreaths were scattered about the roadway near the memorial on the road between Ballygawley and Omagh in Co Tyrone.

This is the latest evidence of worsening sectarian tensions throughout the North, fuelled by what many believe is an impending political crisis this autumn over the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.

Almost 14 years to the day that the soldiers died, arsonists burned down the simple wooden fencing that held an inscription and wreaths to the dead men.

The soldiers, members of the British Light Infantry, had been on their way from Aldergrove Airbase to their barracks in Omagh when the IRA bomb exploded.

Local DUP assemblyman, Oliver Gibson, said it was a vicious attack and was a strike not only at the memory of the dead but the people who had erected it.

Sinn Fein assemblyman, Francie Molloy, said all victims of violence should be treated with respect and the destruction of the memorial was deplorable and served no cause.