Bomb planted at army base

A booby-trapped bomb planted at an army base in Northern Ireland would have killed anyone who touched it, police said today.

The Real IRA claimed it broke through fencing and left the explosives near family quarters at Shackleton barracks in Co Derry close to the border.

An investigation has been launched to establish how the device was transported into the camp.

Superintendent David Hamilton said: “Schoolchildren are all over this base. This was a reckless act on a soft target.”

Even though the device was defused, security has been tightened amid fears of a new offensive by the dissident republican terrorists who carried out the Omagh atrocity.

Soldiers discovered the bomb today attached to a bin in part of the base at Ballykelly used by married troops.

Police described it as a sophisticated anti-personnel device similar to the explosives used by the Real IRA to murder construction worker David Caldwell at a nearby Territorial Army camp in August 2002.

“This was designed to kill anyone who moved it,” Mr Hamilton said.

“It was planted at an accommodation base for soldiers with families.

“There are schoolchildren all over the place and anybody could have had access to this bin.”

Meanwhile an SDLP Assembly member has complained to Irish Government officials over the length of a search by police and troops in the Ardboe area of Co Tyrone.

Patsy McGlone claimed the hunt had been going on for three days without any official explanation.

He said: “People are concerned that they are using this as a flag of convenience for some sort of military exercise in the area.”

A police spokesman said the search followed a report from an army helicopter crew of suspicious activity in the area.