Northern Ireland car bomb 'contained 113kg of explosives'

A car bomb attack outside a court building in Northern Ireland last night was today blamed on dissident republicans. The bombing was condemned by the Northern Ireland secretary, Shaun Woodward, as "an act of senseless violence" aimed at turning back the peace process.
Police said it was a "miracle" nobody was injured in the explosion, which happened outside the Newry courthouse, in County Down, shortly after 10.30pm.
The main gates of the building were badly damaged in the blast, which happened within walking distance of restaurants and bars. A local hospital and several businesses received coded warning calls from a dissident republican, and police were still evacuating the scene when the bomb went off. The area's Sinn Féin MP, Conor Murphy, heard the explosion from his home more than four miles away.” We can only be thankful that, at this stage, it appears nobody has been injured," he said at the scene."The people responsible have absolutely nothing to offer the community except the prospect of a return to the past."
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) area commander, Chief Inspector Sam Cordiner, said it was "only by sheer miracle that nobody was killed or injured".

As an ex soldier who has served in Northern Ireland it saddens me to hear of this latest bomb attack in the province. It shows how far we have come since the dark days of the troubles when Sinn Féin are condemning these attacks when once they would be praising the men responsible. There is more going on over the water that the British public don’t know about with paramilitaries of both sides of the sectarian divide, punishment beating being one nasty throw back to controlling the streets. I do not want to give the impression that things are worse than they are as they obviously are not, but maybe the term `dissident republicans` can give a false impression that it is a very small minority of the Irish people who want `Britain out of Ireland` for good. The fact is one generation listens to the last and becomes the next `Freedom Fighters` , `Terrorists` call them what you will. Lets remember we have gone from having 30,000 to 5,000 British troops in Ireland with the loss of 700 soldiers. Things have moved on for the good, contrast this with around 2,000 British soldiers on the Falklands, this shows that potential for serious civil unrest is not 8,000 miles away but literally on our doorstep. Lets hope that eventually even the 5,000 British troops still in Northern Ireland can come home also and leave the Country to be run by its people from both main religions.