New IRA responsible for mortar bomb near Strabane police station

by PA reporter and Q Radio News

A mortar bomb recovered in an Irish border town was intended to be shot into a police station, a senior commander said.

A security alert lasted throughout the day, as families were forced from their homes in Church View Close in Strabane, following the discovery on Saturday morning. 

Senior Police Service of Northern Ireland commander Superintendent Gordon McCalmont said the seventh attack this year in Strabane in Co Tyrone was cause for concern.

He warned: "It is designed to kill and harm people."

Police said the latest bomb was a deadly device which was found close to a home.

Mr McCalmont added: "For some reason it has failed to deploy. It could have went anywhere.

"It was stored and sitting overnight for eight or nine hours in this vulnerable position where a member of the public found it."

Superintendent Gordon McCalmont says those behind the weekend device have shown no regard for life. (Vid @LeonaONeill1 ) pic.twitter.com/mOK3WuUxX1

— Q Radio News (@qnewsdesk) September 9, 2019

Meanwhile, Superintendent McCalmont also confirmed the new IRA was responsible for the device. 

He says a major operation is currently underway in the Creggan area of Derry/Londonderry targeting suspected New IRA members. 

Supt. Gordon McCalmont says the New IRA members behind the attack in Strabane ‘are living in the community.’ To further highlight the total disregard shown by the New IRA’, a public safety operation is taking place in Creggan. pic.twitter.com/409wXoSMKk

— Police Service NI (@PoliceServiceNI) September 9, 2019