Car Booby-Trapped by IRA Kills British Naval Officer in Belfast

IRA guerrillas Monday booby-trapped the car of a British naval officer, killing him with a powerful bomb blast as he drove home in rush-hour traffic.

A “saddened and angered” British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, reacting to “yet another senseless killing,” refused to rule out prison without trial for guerrilla suspects in Northern Ireland.

Police said the blast--coming only two days after an Irish Republican Army bomb killed eight British soldiers and wounded 28--engulfed the unidentified recruiting officer’s car in a fireball as he braked for a red light in the heart of Belfast’s commercial district.

A van crashed into the rear of the car, and police reported two people were treated for minor injuries.

Police and firefighters rushed to the scene, but the 45-year-old officer was found dead in the mangled wreckage.

Even as firefighters cut his body from the wreckage, responsibility was claimed by the outlawed IRA, fighting to end British rule in mostly Protestant Northern Ireland and unite it with the heavily Catholic Irish Republic.

The slain officer was the 74th person to die in political and sectarian violence in the province this year, compared with 95 for all of last year. Twenty-seven victims were members of the British military.

Thatcher confirmed she is still considering reimposing internment of IRA suspects without trial, a policy suspended in 1975 after worldwide protests that Britain was violating human rights.

“All options are very much being considered,” she said. “We know we must never let terrorism win. We are having a thorough review of all security matters and nothing has been ruled out.”