Oglaigh na hEireann 'Planted Bomb'

Ardoyne-based republicans are being balmed for the failed weekend bomb attack on the NI Policing Board.

It has emerged that the republican dissident group Oglaigh na hEireann (ONH) was suspected of the 400lb car bomb attack.

It is belived the car used to ferry the bomb to Clarendon Dock had been spotted in the Ardoyne area of north Belfast hours before the attack.

Police believe that two former Provisional IRA members, who split from the organisation because of Sinn Féin's support for policing, were behind the attack.

North Belfast DUP MP Nigel Dodds described the bombers as "reckless" and "having nothing to offer but murder and mayhem".

His comments came as the SDLP leader Mark Durkan described the attack as an attempt to "strike at the democratic structures of the north" and Policing Board member and Ulster Unionist MLA Basil McCrea described the attacks as "calculated and callous".

Underlining the dissidents' exclusion from mainstream republicanism, Sinn Féin MLA Gerry Kelly said that it was fortunate that the device had only partially exploded.

"It's ironic that they should choose to attack the Policing Board, which is the very accountability mechanism which was negotiated and set up to keep the police to account – which means that it really is an attack on the community."

See: Bomb 'Attempt To Derail Peace': Baggott

(BMcC/GK)