British, Irish Vow Tougher War on IRA

Britain and Ireland on Friday pledged a tougher war on the Irish Republican Army, whose mortar attack on a Newry police compound killed nine people and wounded 37.

Northern Ireland Secretary Douglas Hurd visited the devastated scene in a bulletproof car and said that Britain is determined to “defeat the terrorists” who are trying to drive Britain out of the province.

Irish Prime Minister Garret FitzGerald promised in Dublin to spare no effort “to apprehend and put away those responsible for this atrocity if they cross the border into the (Irish) Republic.” Newry is a border town, and the presumption is that the attackers fled to Ireland after the attack Thursday night. The overwhelmingly Roman Catholic IRA is outlawed on both sides of the border.

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said in London that she is “immensely grateful” for the Irish pledge.

‘Eye for Eye’

A leader of Northern Ireland’s Protestant extremists said: “We will repay this bloody debt in kind. We’re talking about an eye for an eye.” He spoke on condition of anonymity.

IRA guerrillas fired nine mortar shells Thursday night at the police station in this predominantly Catholic town, about 35 miles south of Belfast.

Four or five shells carrying 40-pound warheads were fired from the bed of a hijacked truck 200 yards away and crashed through the roof of the wooden canteen building where about 50 police officers were having their evening meal, Deputy Police Chief Michael McAtamney said.

The explosions demolished the building, and the dead and wounded were mutilated by flying shards of glass and wood.

One round exploded near houses around the police base, causing no damage, and the others either blew up in flight or failed to detonate, police said.

Seven men and two women police officers were killed, the highest toll ever in a single attack on the province’s predominantly Protestant Royal Ulster Constabulary. Twenty-five civilians and 12 police officers were taken to a hospital, and all but one were released after treatment.

A few hours later, guerrillas killed a soldier of the Ulster Defense Regiment, a mostly Protestant British army unit recruited in Northern Ireland, in a booby-trap bombing at Pomeroy, 35 miles north of Newry. Two soldiers were wounded.

The IRA claimed responsibility for both attacks. “This is a major and well-planned operation, indicating our ability to strike where and when we decide,” the guerrillas said in a statement issued to news organizations Friday.

Backlash Predicted

The Ulster Defense Assn., a clandestine Protestant group that claims 10,000 members, predicted a violent backlash by pro-British extremists. It issued a statement saying IRA guerrillas “must be sought out and destroyed in their lair.”

Police spokesman Dave Hanna said officers raided Irish nationalist strongholds Friday and arrested “a number” of activists for questioning. He said the arrests stemmed from Thursday night’s attacks, but would not elaborate.