Post by thales on Jul 18, 2007 10:05:09 GMT -1
LINKS between two of the military grenades used in a series of explosive device attacks in Dublin and Limerick have been discovered by Garda and Army technical experts.
The grenades were manufactured in the former Yugoslavia and probably smuggled into the country by dissident republicans after being purchased from factions involved in the Balkan conflict.
The recent upsurge in violent incidents involving grenades and pipebombs over the past couple of months has prompted the garda authorities to set up a special team to co-ordinate inquiries into the attacks.
Army bomb disposal officers were called out 16 times over a six-week period to deal with possible devices.
The garda team, headed by a detective superintendent, will oversee the investigations being carried out by local gardai into each of the attacks.
Investigation
It includes members of the national bureau of criminal investigation, the Special Branch and the technical bureau.
"Our aim is to back up the local officers by pulling together all of the available intelligence and making sure the investigations are fully co-ordinated," one member of the team said last night. "We are using this intelligence to attempt to track down the source of the devices and find out how the grenades were brought into the country," he added.
Garda technical bureau and Army ordnance experts have established firm links between military grenades used in separate attacks last month in the Coombe in the south inner city and in Crumlin.
The Crumlin attack resulted in a dozen families being evacuated from their homes in the Slane Road area on June 28. Nobody was injured but the explosion resulted in extensive damage to a car and the exterior of one house.
Detectives believe the attack is linked to a row between prisoners at Mountjoy jail, which led to the death of Derek Glennon earlier that week.
Evidence gleaned by the experts showed that the grenade was part of a batch that also included a device that exploded at Park Terrace, in the heart of the Coombe district, two days before the Crumlin attack.
A former INLA leader, who is the prime suspect for a terrorist murder in Britain, is believed to have been behind the blast.
The incident is being linked to a row that initially stemmed from a minor dispute between a criminal and his mother-in-law.
The grenades were manufactured in the former Yugoslavia and probably smuggled into the country by dissident republicans after being purchased from factions involved in the Balkan conflict.
The recent upsurge in violent incidents involving grenades and pipebombs over the past couple of months has prompted the garda authorities to set up a special team to co-ordinate inquiries into the attacks.
Army bomb disposal officers were called out 16 times over a six-week period to deal with possible devices.
The garda team, headed by a detective superintendent, will oversee the investigations being carried out by local gardai into each of the attacks.
Investigation
It includes members of the national bureau of criminal investigation, the Special Branch and the technical bureau.
"Our aim is to back up the local officers by pulling together all of the available intelligence and making sure the investigations are fully co-ordinated," one member of the team said last night. "We are using this intelligence to attempt to track down the source of the devices and find out how the grenades were brought into the country," he added.
Garda technical bureau and Army ordnance experts have established firm links between military grenades used in separate attacks last month in the Coombe in the south inner city and in Crumlin.
The Crumlin attack resulted in a dozen families being evacuated from their homes in the Slane Road area on June 28. Nobody was injured but the explosion resulted in extensive damage to a car and the exterior of one house.
Detectives believe the attack is linked to a row between prisoners at Mountjoy jail, which led to the death of Derek Glennon earlier that week.
Evidence gleaned by the experts showed that the grenade was part of a batch that also included a device that exploded at Park Terrace, in the heart of the Coombe district, two days before the Crumlin attack.
A former INLA leader, who is the prime suspect for a terrorist murder in Britain, is believed to have been behind the blast.
The incident is being linked to a row that initially stemmed from a minor dispute between a criminal and his mother-in-law.
