2 Shops, Pub Firebombed in N. Ireland
Two Belfast shops and a pub were hit by firebombs Sunday, and dissident republicans eager to upset the fragile Northern Ireland peace process were suspected of the attacks.
Police warned shop owners in Belfast, the provincial capital, not to return to their stores for fear that there could be more incendiary devices.
“It is clear we are a long way from peace,” said Jeffrey Donaldson of the pro-British Ulster Unionist Party.
The firebombs followed Saturday’s car bomb attack in Banbridge, about 25 miles southwest of Belfast, that injured 35 people and damaged as many as 200 houses.
Britain’s Northern Ireland secretary, Marjorie “Mo” Mowlam, condemned the car bomb as “a cowardly attack” and said it was a miracle that no one was killed.
No one claimed responsibility for the blast, but politicians blamed dissident republican groups opposed to a landmark deal struck in April to bring peace to the British province.
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