Real IRA blamed for London blast

Officers search the area around the site of the blast

LONDON, England -- British police suspect dissident Irish Republicans of planting a bomb at a postal centre in north London.

Police said the high-explosive device went off in a postal sorting office in Hendon, which was empty, just before 11:30 p.m. (2230 GMT) on Saturday.

Windows were blown out of the building but there were no injuries.

It came two days after the renegade Real IRA issued a statement vowing to keep up its struggle to end British rule in Northern Ireland.

"Partition has failed and those who attempt to uphold it will fail," it said on Thursday.

The Real IRA split from the mainstream Irish Republican Army in 1997 and is believed to be behind Northern Ireland's single worst atrocity -- the 1998 car bomb attack in Omagh which killed 29 people.

Unlike the IRA, which is under ceasefire, the Real IRA opposes the 1998 Good Friday Agreement upon which the current peace process is based.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Alan Fry, head of head of Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist branch, said that no coded warnings had been received but he suspected the Real IRA.

"There is a pub very near the sorting office. Whoever planted the device had no thought as to the damage and injury that could be caused."

Police have been on the alert in the capital after a powerful car bomb exploded outside the headquarters of the British Broadcasting Corporation early last month.

That attack was preceded by a coded warning, giving the BBC time to evacuate employees.

The group has also been blamed by the security forces for carrying out a series of relatively minor attacks in London, including one on the MI6 security service headquarters last year.

Easter has been a key date in Irish Republican history since an uprising in 1916. Leaders of the rebellion were later executed.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Northern Ireland Office

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