Huge Ira Bomb Cache Found In London Explosives Were Five Times Greater Than Oklahoma City Bomb, Scotland Yard Says

A 10-ton cache of Irish Republican Army explosives - the biggest ever found on the main British island - was uncovered by anti-terrorist police Monday in a series of dawn raids that left one suspect dead and five others in police custody.

The discovery dashed recently renewed hopes that a new IRA cease-fire is in the offing and raised fears that the anti-British terrorist group is on the verge of staging one of its deadliest bombing campaigns ever.

The fertilizer-based explosives, found in a north London warehouse disguised as a fertilizer plant, were five times greater in size than the 4,000-pound homemade bomb that destroyed Oklahoma City’s federal building in April 1995, killing 168.

Scotland Yard officials said the homemade explosives were “ready, mixed for use” and, with some extra minor preparations, had the potential to destroy six city centers. Police said the attack may have been planned for as early as Monday or Tuesday.

“I have no doubt that today’s operation has frustrated an attempt by the Provisional IRA to carry out significant and imminent attacks on the mainland with the possibility, indeed the probability, of grave loss of life, serious damage and disruption to mainland cities,” Sir Paul Condon, the metropolitan police commissioner, said at a news briefing.

Police declined to name the five suspects until they are charged. British TV news reports said that one of the men was a British Airways engineer based at London’s Gatwick Airport.

The unidentified dead man was shot as police raided a three-story brick rowhouse in a residential area of Hammersmith on London’s west side. Police said only that the suspect was wounded as “shots were fired” by police at the house. He died hours later.

There seemed to be no doubt that the seized cache, which also included 2 pounds of the plastic explosive Semtex, three Kalashnikov rifles, bomb detonators, timers and two trucks, was amassed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army, the group that has waged war against British targets for a quarter-century in an attempt to force the British government to abandon control of Northern Ireland.

A recent string of successful anti-IRA operations carried out by antiterrorist branch police has raised speculation that British police are being tipped off by an IRA informant.