Alert in London against rebel IRA attacks

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, NOV. 13. London has been placed on high alert following reports of threats from terrorists in the run-up to Christmas festivities.

The Scotland Yard took the unusual step of publicly announcing that it had credible information about possible terrorist attacks in the coming days, and though the source of the threat was not officially identified, it was suggested that the needle of suspicion pointed to the Real IRA (an offshoot of the mainstream IRA which is committed to giving up violence) and the group responsible for the recent attack on MI6 headquarters, a high security zone normally regarded as an unlikely target.

Police said today that a 500-pound bomb, discovered in Belfast on Sunday, might have been ``destined'' for London. It was twice as powerful as the one used in the Omagh bombing that killed 29 people in 1998 and it heightened fears of a ``Christmas bombing campaign'' on the mainland. The police were quoted as saying that dissident Republicans, belonging to the Real IRA, were intending to travel to London via Scotland on a ferry using the same route that the terrorists took for their Docklands bomb attack in 1996, one of the worst in London in recent memory.

``Though there was no specific intelligence about the target, police sources indicated that London would be the logical target'', The Guardian said.

According to intelligence sources, quoted by the paper, the Real IRA has about 150 active supporters who are armed with explosives and rocket launchers. Their number was rising, it said.

Meanwhile, a lorry convoy of fuel protesters has been banned from entering London fearing that terrorists might mingle with the protesters to create trouble. London has been declared as an ``exclusion zone'' for protesters as part of the security drill.

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Section  : International
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