IRA Bungling in Blast Told
A bomb planted by the Irish Republican Army in a busy Protestant shopping district went off sooner than planned, and police said Sunday that an IRA bomber was one of the 10 people killed.
The outlawed Roman Catholic group said it bungled the attack in west Belfast, which injured a second IRA bomber and nearly 60 others. It was the deadliest attack in Northern Ireland in six years.
Police said they arrested “a number” of people but would not say how many.
The suspects were being interrogated.
The bomb exploded in a fish shop on the crowded Shankill Road at midday Saturday.
The IRA said it was targeting an office above the shop belonging to the outlawed Ulster Freedom Fighters, a Protestant paramilitary group.
The group threatened to avenge the bombing, and within hours three men were wounded in separate shootings in Belfast.
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