Letter bomb sent to Northern Ireland policeman
BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) - A senior policeman in a Northern Ireland border town says someone tried to kill him using a letter bomb, and he suspects an Irish Republican Army splinter group is responsible.
Chief Inspector Andy Lemon thanked postal workers for spotting the suspicious letter Friday before it reached him. British Army experts dismantled the device.
Lemon is the senior police officer in Strabane, a predominantly Irish Catholic town that is a power base for several IRA factions in the British territory.
He says that, "As police officers we are targets, and I would be quite high profile within Strabane. It is worrying when you get any threat."
The major IRA faction, the Provisionals, renounced violence and disarmed in 2005, but several breakaway factions still mount occasional attacks. Police are a favored target.