Protestant Militants Plant Bomb on Train

Protestant militants claimed responsibility for a bomb that injured two train passengers Monday and said the attack was a warning that Northern Ireland’s Protestant majority will not be “coerced, forced or persuaded into a united Ireland.”

The attack was the first in Ireland since the Irish Republican Army announced a cease-fire Aug. 31 in its violent 25-year campaign to drive the British from Northern Ireland. Britain and Ireland appealed to the IRA not to retaliate.

The IRA has not avenged three attacks by Protestant militants in Northern Ireland since the cease-fire was announced. Two Roman Catholics died in those attacks.

Police said a shoe box with about 4 1/2 pounds of explosives packed inside was placed beneath a seat on the morning train from Belfast, Northern Ireland. As the train arrived in Dublin, the bomb’s detonator went off--but the rest of the bomb did not explode. Two women suffered cuts on their legs.