DUBLIN (AP) — A 25-year-old Roman Catholic police officer who had just joined Northern Ireland’s police force was killed Saturday when a booby-trap bomb exploded as he got into his car in the town of Omagh, the police and neighbors said.
No group claimed responsibility. But the police and politicians blamedIrish Republican Army dissidents, who have been planting bombs underneath off-duty police officers’ private cars.
Until Saturday, such booby-trap attacks had badly maimed two officers but not killed anyone. This was the first lethal attack on Northern Ireland security forces since dissidents opposed to Northern Ireland peacemaking shot and killed two off-duty British soldiers and a policeman in March 2009.
In previous statements, the dissidents have emphasized their determination to single out any Irish Catholics who join the Northern Ireland police force. Building Catholic support for the previously Protestant-dominated police force is a central goal of the Northern Ireland peace process.
But reflecting the exceptional political solidarity in Northern Ireland today, both British Protestant and Irish Catholic leaders condemned the bombers and vowed to bring them to justice.
Omagh was the site of the deadliest bombing of the Northern Ireland conflict, when a car bomb killed 29 people in 1998.