20/05/2003

Loyalist paramilitary group claim bomb attack

Loyalist paramilitary group, the Red Hand Defenders have admitted planting a bomb outside the offices of Republican Sinn Fein in west Belfast yesterday.

The device was found by a member of staff as they opened the premises on the Falls Road yesterday morning.

Army bomb experts eventually carried out a controlled explosion on the device which contained an explosive substance attached to an alarm clock.

The Red Hand Defenders has been used as a cover name by both the UDA and the LVF in the past.

Republican Sinn Fein are the political wing of dissident republican group, the Continuity IRA.

(MB)

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