UK News 05-11-2001 Real IRA Terrorists Planned To Kill Hundreds who: Real IRA what: Blamed for failed bomb attempt where: BIRMINGHAM when: Saturday night snippet: "Twisted terrorists from the Real IRA tried to slaughter hundreds of people," says Andrew Parker in today`s Sun, "with a bomb just yards from where 21 were murdered by the Provos in 1974." "Police in the UK and republic of Ireland have stepped up security," reports The Financial Times, "following a failed dissident republican bomb attack in Birmingham which experts said could have resulted in serious loss of life." Chris Sims, Assistant Chief Constable of West Midlands Police, said that it was sheer luck that the 70lb bomb failed to detonate properly. He complained that the terrorists` warning 25 minutes earlier was "both ambiguous and difficult to interpret" and said that if the home-made explosives left in a beige Audi coupe near New Street station on Saturday night had fully exploded "there would have been many, many casualties". "The attack came at another time of crisis for the Ulster peace process," remarks The Guardian. "Today David Trimble will try for the second time to be re-elected as Stormont`s first minister. His first attempt on Friday was blocked by two members of his Ulster Unionist party." [... more]

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