Mortar find reinforces fears of new murder campaign

New evidence that dissident republican terrorists are in control of weapons once used by the IRA emerged tonight.

As detectives questioned a man about the mortar bomb seized in Londonderry, security sources linked the find to the Real IRA.

Fears have been growing that the hardline splinter organisation behind the August 1998 Omagh bomb outrage which left 29 people dead is planning a fresh murder campaign.

But the discovery of the Mark 16 horizontal mortar and launching tube at a house in the Bogside area heightened concerns over weapons now available to the republicans opposed to Good Friday Agreement.

The IRA used the same type of device to kill a Royal Ulster Constabulary officer in the city eight years ago.

Constable Gregory Pollock, 23, died when a mortar hit his Land Rover on the Spencer Road in April 1994.

A security source in the city said tonight: “It’s a very worrying development.”

Northern Ireland Security Minister Jane Kennedy has promised a major crackdown on the dissidents who split from the Provisional IRA in 1997 in a huge row over the republican movement’s future direction in the peace process.

But the latest discovery confirmed the growing threat of the Real IRA which has resisted pressure on all sides to end its campaign.

In February, a 49-year-old security guard suffered massive injuries to his lower body when he picked up a booby-trapped device at Magilligan army training centre near Derry.

The explosives used had been pioneered by the Provisionals in south Armagh 20 years ago.

A month after that attack, a former Royal Irish Regiment soldier escaped injury when a bomb was planted under his car in Sion Mills, Co Tyrone.

But the Real IRA claimed its first life since the 1998 Omagh massacre when construction worker David Caldwell picked up a lunchbox packed with explosives at a Territorial Army base near Derry in August this year.

After ignoring a call from its jailed leaders to disband, the Real IRA and its associates in the Continuity IRA have staged a series of bomb alerts across Northern Ireland.

The terrorists, who have vowed to scupper the efforts of the Sinn Fein leadership under Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, warned the public last week to stay away from army and police bases.

On Friday shoppers escaped injury when a hijacked van laden with explosives that could have caused a huge fireball partially exploded in Belfast city centre.

But Ian Paisley Jr, one of the hardline Democratic Unionists in the Northern Ireland Assembly, claimed the dissidents weaponry proved they were still linked to the Provisional IRA.

“Dissidents can’t break wind without the express wish of the IRA,” he insisted.

“The fact that they have the same materials and methods as the IRA further convinces me of that view.”

Police Service of Northern Ireland Inspector Brian Hume described the latest find as extremely significant.

He said: “We suspect it was dissident republicans operating within the city.

“Most definitely lives have been saved. This is an extremely deadly device and would definitely have caused serious injury if not death if used.”

Ms Kennedy denounced those linked to the bomb as enemies of the peace process.

But she pledged: “We are determined they will not succeed and we are determined to face them down.”