British Fear ‘Human Bomb’ Blitz : Northern Ireland: The Irish Republican Army has adopted a grim new tactic in its battle to oust Britain. Kidnaping victims have been forced to “deliver” the bombs.

The kidnaping victim forced to drive to a Northern Ireland security checkpoint with the biggest bomb ever made by the IRA had his legs badly beaten to stop him from escaping.

Another was strapped into the seat of his bomb-laden van. A third broke a leg running for his life.

A fourth was not so lucky. He was blown to pieces when his car exploded.

The Irish Republican Army has adopted a grim new tactic in its battle to oust Britain from Northern Ireland, and security chiefs, apparently tipped off by IRA informers, now fear that more “human bombs” could be used in a pre-Christmas bombing blitz.

For the first time in four years, the British army has sent more troops into Northern Ireland. Some 600 soldiers arrived in early December as the British-ruled province braced for an upsurge of violence.

“Don’t blame us. Blame the terrorists,” say the signs outside bomb-blasted checkpoints where traffic crawls in long lines as soldiers carefully check every vehicle.

Four border checkpoints have been closed during darkness in a tacit admission by the army that it cannot totally protect them at night.

Taking over routine security patrol duties, the newly arrived soldiers will free special undercover troops to mount more covert operations against IRA guerrillas along the border with the Irish Republic.

Britain now has 11,000 soldiers in Northern Ireland, the highest figure since the early 1980s.

Human-bomb attacks have killed six British soldiers and obliterated two security checkpoints. Two near-misses could have caused similar devastation, and survivors tell grim tales of their ordeals.

Gerry Kelly was tied into his camper in October with 200 pounds of explosives and forced to drive into a British army camp.

Miraculously, he managed to wriggle free, and the bomb failed to detonate.

“It was a ghastly ordeal and, frankly, I don’t think I’ll ever get over it,” Kelly said afterward. “I am now thinking of quitting Ireland completely.”

Kelly, whose wife and 7-year-old daughter were taken hostage, added: “I just kept thinking about my family and what would happen to them.”

A month later, the IRA loaded Peter North’s pickup truck with 3,300 pounds of explosives, the biggest bomb they had ever made.

His elderly parents were taken hostage and tied up. He was told to drive the truck to a checkpoint. He managed to raise an alarm and stagger clear. Only the detonator exploded.

“They battered Peter’s legs so that he couldn’t run from the van. Animals wouldn’t do something like that,” Maureen North said of her son. “We didn’t know what we were going to do without him.”

It was the fifth time in 13 years that the Protestant family had been attacked by the IRA. They have now gone into hiding.

Patsy Gillespie, a Catholic, was taken from his home and forced to drive his bomb-laden car to a checkpoint in Londonderry. The bomb killed him and five British soldiers.

On the same night, another British soldier died in another human-bomb attack, but the kidnaped driver, an elderly pensioner, managed to escape in time.

The IRA is convinced that it can maintain its core support in nationalist ghettos despite being widely condemned by politicians and clergy for the new tactic.

It says it selects as its human bombs “collaborators” who did construction work or deliveries for British security forces. They are viewed by the IRA as legitimate guerrilla targets along with soldiers, police officers, judges and prison officials.