Bombing Follows Sinn Fein’s Ouster From Talks 11 Injured In Attack; Officials Stop Short Of Blaming Ira

The police chief of Northern Ireland said Saturday that the bomb that ripped the center of a predominantly Protestant village west of here late Friday night had been planted by “Republican extremists.”

But the chief, Ronnie Flanagan, who was instrumental in the expulsion of the political wing of the Irish Republican Army from the Northern Ireland peace talks on Friday, stopped short of blaming the IRA for the new bombing.

The attack, which wounded 11 people, has brought new fears that the sectarian conflict between this British province’s Protestant majority and its Roman Catholic minority is about to resume and that there will be Protestant retaliation for the bombing. Since 1969, the violence has killed more than 3,200 people.

The British and Irish governments, sponsors of the peace talks, declared on Friday that the political wing of the IRA, Sinn Fein, might be reinstated after March 9, but only if the IRA did not commit violence in the meantime. The bombing is certain to be scrutinized by British security and intelligence officials to determine whether there was any IRA involvement, which might jeopardize Sinn Fein’s reinstatement next month.

Flanagan, the chief constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, had told the British Northern Ireland secretary, Mo Mowlam, that the IRA had been involved in the killing of two civilians in Belfast last week. On that assessment, Mowlam decided that Sinn Fein had broken the pledge made by all parties to the talks as a condition of their participation: to oppose violence and to support only peaceful means toward political ends.

Paul Murphy, the Northern Ireland security minister, visited Moira, the village where the bombing took place, Saturday morning. The attack, he said, was a “cynical attempt to undermine the peace process.” He said the peace talks, which moved to Dublin for three days last week, would resume in Belfast on Monday.

Protestant leaders were quick to accuse the IRA or IRA front groups like the Continuity IRA, which has exploded two bombs in the province in the last 19 months, neither of which caused serious injuries. No group has claimed responsibility for the latest attack.

“If it wasn’t the IRA, it was sanctioned by the IRA” said Jeffrey Donaldson, a leader of the Ulster Unionist Party and a member of the British Parliament.

“It wasn’t the work of loyalists,” he said, referring to Protestant paramilitaries. “Loyalists don’t put bombs outside police stations.”

Donaldson, a resident of the area, said that “the people of Moira will believe that this was the IRA” response to the expulsion of Sinn Fein.

“This is the IRA answer to the hopes of Northern Ireland for peace,” he added. “This bomb in Moira tonight has blown hopes for peace to smithereens.”