Omagh families sue suspects

Devastation in Omagh by a car bomb that killed 29

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- Relatives of people killed in one of Northern Ireland's worst terrorist attacks have launched an unprecedented compensation claim against five suspected IRA dissidents.

The Real IRA said it carried out the car bombing that killed 29 people in Omagh town centre three years ago.

The bombing came four months after Protestant and Catholic parties signed the 1998 Good Friday Agreement -- opposed by the Real IRA -- aimed at ending the cycle of sectarian feuding.

One of those named as defendants is Michael McKevitt, who is reputed to be the Real IRA's leader and is in jail awaiting trial on charges of membership in an outlawed group.

MORE STORIES N. Ireland assembly suspended   Northern Ireland at crossroads

Michael Gallagher, whose 21-year-old son Adrian was killed along with 28 others, said it was the first time anyone had launched a civil action against those said to belong to a guerrilla organisation.

"The writ was lodged today," Gallagher told Reuters, adding that families would be meeting at the bomb site in Omagh, Northern Ireland, on Saturday to appeal for funds for the legal battle.

British law decrees that victims must launch a civil action within three years of the event.

The legal move came as Britain suspended the troubled province's devolved government in an attempt to heal a rift between the sides over the Irish Republican Army's failure to disarm.

The IRA and Northern Ireland's other main guerrilla groups are observing long-standing cease-fires but splinter paramilitary groups such as the Real IRA, and the Red Hand Defenders on the pro-British "loyalist" side, remain active.

The Real IRA was blamed by British police in Ealing, west London, for last week's car bomb that injured 11 people.