Pro-British Loyalists Try to Bomb Belfast Office of IRA Political Arm

Pro-British loyalists tried to blow up an office of the IRA’s political wing, Sinn Fein, in this provincial capital Sunday in an apparent breach of their 1994 cease-fire.

The British Broadcasting Corp. quoted loyalist sources as saying the attempt was a “measured” response to attacks by their Irish Republican Army foes, who seek to end British rule.

A complete breakdown of the loyalists’ 1994 cease-fire would return Northern Ireland to the tit-for-tat violence that reigned until both loyalists and the IRA called a halt to their war in order to pursue an Anglo-Irish peace initiative.

Security forces said they set off controlled explosions in a hijacked taxi carrying an 84-pound bomb, which was driven to the New Lodge offices of Sinn Fein on the day that Irish republicans commemorate the 1916 Dublin rising against British rule.

Britain’s Northern Ireland secretary, Patrick Mayhew, condemned loyalists for the attempted bombing but made no comment about whether it would affect the participation of their political representatives at Belfast peace talks scheduled to resume June 3.

Protestant loyalist groups are set to take part because their umbrella organization, the Combined Loyalist Military Command, maintains that its own truce is intact, despite attacks it blames on mavericks.

Two small political groups allied to loyalist guerrilla organizations have claimed seats at the Belfast negotiations, but Sinn Fein is excluded because of the IRA’s ending of its own 17-month truce in February 1996.

Sinn Fein’s ideological foes, Protestant unionist parties that want the province to stay British, say they will walk out of the Belfast talks if Sinn Fein enters because they do not believe the IRA will declare an end to guerrilla war.