IRA suspect Rogan to be extradited

An IRA suspect charged with bombing the British army’s headquarters in Northern Ireland has been arrested on Tenerife and will be extradited back home, police said today.

Michael Rogan, 44, was arrested in Playa de las Americas, a beach resort on the Canary island.

A statement from Spain’s national police confirming Rogan’s arrest described him as “a prominent member of the Provisional IRA”, the outlawed group’s full formal name.

It said the British had issued three European-wide warrants for his arrest and Spain intended to extradite Rogan.

The Belfast Catholic had been on the run from British justice since 1997, when he jumped bail in Northern Ireland while awaiting trial for his alleged role in one of the IRA’s most audacious attacks: a double car-bomb strike inside Thiepval Barracks near Belfast on October 7, 1996.

Two IRA teams posing as construction workers and using fake IDs drove two car bombs through the barracks’ heavily protected main entrance and right past a checkpoint of soldiers.

A 43-year-old army engineer, James Bradwell, was fatally wounded and 31 others were injured in the two subsequent blasts. The IRA called a ceasefire in July 1997.