CONTINUITY IRA CLAIMS ATTACK IN DERRY Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit source:"J. Dana" CONTINUITY IRA CLAIMS ATTACK 10/30/97 15:49 EST The Continuity IRA has claimed responsibility for today's Semtex bomb attack in Derry. A masked gunman left a incendiary device containing one and a half lbs of explosives and taped to two gallons of petrol at a tax office building. More than 300 civil servants fled and although the detonator exploded, the bomb, inside a holdall, failed to ignite the main charge. The Continuity IRA admitted responsibility for the attack, but the disclosure tonight by security sources that Semtex was used means the group opposed to the peace process has got powerful explosives which the Provisional IRA had previously only access to. This is the second major CIRA attack since the IRA restored its ceasefire three months ago. A huge van bomb devastated part of Markethill, Co Armagh last month. Sinn Fein's Dodie McGuinness said the party was deeply concerned by the attack. "Those responsible for it are trying to undermine the peace process. I believe everybody should remain focused on the task in hand, and not be deflected by incidents of this nature." The CIRA admission of involvement came as army explosives experts defused the blast incendiary while another bomb squad checked for a second device behind hoarding next to a derelict shop at Lower English Street in Armagh city. In its statement, the CIRA said: "The operation was carried out to remind the British government and those at the Stormont talking shop that there will be no peace in Ireland until the three demands of republicans are met - troops out, the release of all republican prisoners of war, and the holding of an all-Ireland convention to draw up a new constitution for a 32-county Ireland. RUC Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan said tonight that the CIRA posed a growing threat. He said the Derry bomb was a "viable device". "We had anticipated an attack by the Continuity IRA for sometime now, and at this stage although it is too soon to be definitive, this would seem to be the work of that organisation. They showed in Markethill what they are capable of and people must be vigilant against that threat." __________________________________________________________ The Irish American Information Service is a non-profit organization provding up-to-the-minute objective coverage of news as it happens in Ireland and the North. Please visit us on the World Wide Web at http://www.iais.org ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytire-10.31.97-21:26:47-18648