Land Mine Kills 4 Soldiers, Hurts Civilian in N. Ireland
A land mine hidden in a culvert exploded under a military vehicle today, killing four soldiers and injuring a civilian near this southeastern town, police said.
The Irish Republican Army claimed responsibility in a statement issued to news media in the British province.
An army spokesman said the bomb hurled the heavy Land Rover into the air and left behind a crater in the road about 40 feet wide and 15 feet deep. Shattered pieces of the vehicle were scattered over the nearby countryside.
The explosion occurred just before 8 a.m. near the Downpatrick race course in County Down, in the southeast part of the province. The area was quickly sealed off, and police and soldiers were airlifted in to search for clues.
A civilian in a passing car suffered cuts and bruises, a spokesman for the Royal Ulster Constabulary said.
The soldiers were members of the Ulster Defense Regiment, the mainly Protestant, locally recruited regiment of the British army, said the spokesman, speaking anonymously in keeping with British custom.
The deaths bring to 16 killed in political and sectarian violence in Northern Ireland so far this year.
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