Tom Clonan Security specialist and columnist, TheJournal.ie FOR THOSE OF us with experience of the Troubles on this island, recent incidents involving dissident republicans in Northern Ireland make for grim reading.
Such mortars are designed to carry a payload of up to 1kg of high explosives, in a highly penetrative, high temperature shaped-charge. They are also light, highly portable and do not require the base plate to be anchored – the Strabane device was simply weighted down with a sandbag.Such mortars – there would appear to have been three in this instance – would have a range of approximately 100 metres.
The Provisional IRA launched thousands of such mortar attacks on police, military and government targets during the Troubles. The improvised mortars that the PIRA used – a series of weapon variants from the Mark 1 Mortar to the Mark 17 Mortar – increased in sophistication, accuracy and lethal effect from 1972 to 1996.
One struck a tree just 13 metres from the prime minister’s cabinet office. Had the mortar not struck the tree, it could have killed or seriously injured the British prime minister and most of his cabinet. These devices, whilst relatively sophisticated, are simple to construct and deploy.The PIRA carried out three similar mortar attacks on Heathrow Airport in March 1994.
However, Saturday’s incident represents a worrying escalation in that it is the first time a viable mortar has been deployed by dissidents in a deliberate attack designed to kill a large number of police men and women.