Explosives Found in Car Linked to IRA Rebels Slain in Gibraltar

Spanish police found an explosives-laden car Tuesday that was believed rented by three Irish Republican Army members shot to death in Gibraltar by British commandos, officials said.

It was packed with powerful explosives made in Czechoslovakia and rigged with a timing device set for 11:20 a.m., but the timer had not been connected, the Spanish officials said. The white Ford Fiesta was in a parking lot at Marbella, a resort city about 50 miles up the Mediterranean coast from this British colony.

British officials in London said the IRA members, who were unarmed when commandos killed them Sunday, had planned to detonate a car bomb Tuesday during the 20-minute changing of the guard ceremony at the governor’s residence. The ceremony began at 11 a.m.

The Royal Anglian Regiment now guards The Convent, as the residence is called. The regiment was just transferred to Gibraltar from service in Northern Ireland, where the IRA is fighting a guerrilla war to drive out the British.

Soldiers in combat gear patrolled Convent Square on Tuesday, with dogs trained to sniff out explosives, and the ceremony went on as scheduled.

All three of the IRA members were from West Belfast in Northern Ireland.

British soldiers and protesters outraged by the killings fought in the streets of West Belfast all day Tuesday. No casualties were reported.

Young rioters hurled gasoline bombs and rocks, hijacked vehicles and set them ablaze, burned lumber and blocked streets with barricades. Soldiers dispersed mobs with volleys of plastic bullets, but the crowds formed again quickly.

Prime Minister Charles Haughey of the Irish Republic held a special meeting of his Cabinet. He told Parliament later that his government recognizes Britain’s right to take reasonable measures against terrorism, but added:

“We are greatly perturbed at the shooting dead of three unarmed Irish people in circumstances where it appears from reports that they could have been arrested by the security forces. The law shouldn’t operate like that.”

Witnesses to the shooting Sunday said men in civilian clothes, believed to be members of the Special Air Services anti-terrorist force, jumped from a car and opened fire on two men and a women walking down the avenue leading to the border between Gibraltar and Spain.

Two cars linked to the dead IRA members were found in Gibraltar. Geoffrey Howe, the British foreign secretary, said Monday that a third car was believed to be involved.

He said it was not true, as earlier official reports had said, that a car the IRA members parked near the governor’s residence Sunday was packed with explosives.

Howe said a “dreadful terrorist act” was averted when the commandos killed the IRA members.

Agustin Valladolid, spokesman for Spanish state security in Madrid, said the white Ford was found in the Sun Parking Lot in Marbella at about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.

He said that it was left in the lot Sunday but that the timing device was not connected and there had been no danger of an explosion in the lot. Valladolid said Spanish police have stepped up their search for a fourth member of the IRA team.

The IRA identified the three people killed as Mairead Farrell, 31; Daniel McCann, 30, and Sean Savage, 24, all of West Belfast. Although unarmed, it said, they were “on active service.”