A bomb found near a car in Derry County was planted there in an attempt to kill a police officer and her child’s daughter, police said.
The Northern Ireland Police Service (PSNI) has confirmed that a viable explosive device attached to a container of flammable liquid was found Monday night outside the house of the part-time officer in a rural area of the county. Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis described the incident as a “murder attempt”.
PSNI Assistant Chief Mark McEwan said: “This was designed to cause a fireball that would have swallowed the victim’s car and anyone in or near it.
“What is really worrying here is that the terrorists placed the bomb in the back of the car directly at the point where the victim’s three-year-old daughter is standing. This demonstrates the complete and total disregard for the life of a mother and her child – this is simply a faith beggar ”.
There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attack, but police believe the New IRA dissident group is behind the attack, its first in more than a year.
The incident threatens to further escalate tensions in the region, which have been shaken by a series of Easter violence and riots, partly caused by opposition to Brexit controls on goods shipped from the UK.
On Tuesday, Boris Johnson pledged to disrupt “ridiculous” border controls and remove “scales” from the Northern Ireland protocol. The Prime Minister told BBC Spotlight in Northern Ireland: “What we are doing is what I think is removing the unnecessary bumps and barriers that have grown and taking the scales out of things and grinding into shape.
“It seems that the EU will be very dogmatic and we will continue [be in an] absurd situation, so you can not bring rose bushes with British soil in Northern Ireland, you can not bring British sausages to Northern Ireland, then, honestly, I will go, we will have to take further action. ”
Others were quick to point out that the controls were the direct result of the harsh Brexit Johnson had been pursuing.
Maroš Šefčovič, the European Commissioner overseeing Brexit issues, said: “This agreement was negotiated signed and ratified by Prime Minister Johnson’s government. When it comes to some of the statements, what I have to say here is that all these are consequences of Brexit, the kind of Brexit that was chosen by the British government.
“All the examples … could be solved very easily if the United Kingdom had decided to remain in the area of sanitary and phytosanitary controls. So, here we are dealing with the consequences of Brexit ”.
Šefčovič said, however, that the commission was in talks with the British government to make the implementation of controls more enjoyable in light of the violence in recent weeks.
“Of course, what we want to make sure is that we minimize disruption to the people of Northern Ireland, but it has to be a two-way street,” he said. “We are ready to do our part, but I am sure that the UK can do more, and we would like to talk about that and what we are talking about with our British counterparts.
“Checks could be easier if we finally get adequate access to the IT system for customs checks. Many of these controls could be eliminated if they found a solution to compliance with well-respected standards for food protection, phytosanitary controls and all aspects of such important elements as public safety, public health and animal welfare.
“I proposed all these things to the British government when negotiating the withdrawal agreement and the trade agreement – as you know very well, they were rejected and therefore we are now going through very demanding negotiations on how to implement it on the ground.”
If Johnson took the step of invoking Article 16 of the protocol, it would be extremely confrontational. Relations with the EU have not yet recovered after a Brussels official threatened such a move in January in connection with the vaccine supply.
Officials in London and Brussels are engaged in intense technical discussions to facilitate the application of the protocol, which has polarized views in Northern Ireland. Nationalist political leaders and many business leaders want it to work and argue that if a pragmatic approach to controls is found, then the region could have the best of both worlds allowed to trade in both the EU and the EU. and in the UK, without trade barriers.
However, loyalist and unionist leaders want this to be abandoned and contributed to the Easter uprising. DUP colleague Nigel Dodds last week described the EU’s approach as “belligerent”, claiming that it “ignored the vision of the unionists and violated all the founding principles of decentralized settlement”, including the principle of consent of all communities.
Attempts to blow up a police officer’s car were denounced across the political spectrum, with Lewis describing it as “absolutely ugly” and calling Northern Ireland’s secret secretary Louise Haigh “reprehensible”.
In a statement, McEwan said, “We treat this as an attack on a staff member who also serves his community as a part-time officer.”
The protocol divided voters in Northern Ireland with a BBC-commissioned opinion poll showing that 48% agree that it should be abandoned, but 46% disagree. South of the border, 74% agreed that it should not be abandoned, showing strong support for the Brexit agreement.
The poll showed no majority for a united Ireland, with 49% saying they would vote to stay in the UK if a referendum were held today, compared to 43% saying they would vote to leave. South of the border, 51% were in favor of a united Ireland, insufficient to justify a referendum.