A bomb found next to a car in County Derry has been set off in an attempt to kill a police officer and her toddler 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 outside a part-time officer’s house in a rural part of the country on Monday night. Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis described the incident as an “attempted murder”.
PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Mark McEwan said: ‘It was designed to cause a fireball that would engulf the victim’s car and anyone in or near it.
‘What’s really disturbing here is that terrorists placed the bomb in the back of the car at the point where the victim’s three-year-old daughter is sitting. It demonstrates the total and utter disregard of the life of a mother and her toddler – it simply begs for faith. ‘
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but police believe the New IRA dissident group is behind the attack, the first in more than a year.
The incident threatens to escalate tensions in the region, which has been plagued by a spate of violence and riots over Easter, driven in part by opposition to Brexit controls of goods shipped from Britain.
Boris Johnson undertook on Tuesday to cut the “ridiculous” border investigations and repel the Northern Ireland protocol. The Prime Minister told BBC Northern Ireland’s spotlight: ‘What we are doing is what I think removes the unnecessary protrusions and obstacles that have grown up, and we get the razors of the thing and form sandpaper.
‘If it looks like the EU is going to be very dogmatic about it, and we will continue [be in an] absurd situation so you can not bring rose bushes with British soil into Northern Ireland, you can not bring British sausages to Northern Ireland, then I will honestly say, we will have to take further steps. ”
Others quickly pointed out that the checks were a direct result of the hard Brexit Johnson was following.
Maroš Šefčovič, the European Commissioner overseeing Brexit issues, said: “This agreement has been signed and signed and ratified by the government of Prime Minister Johnson. As for some of the allegations, what I have to say here is that they are all consequences of Brexit, the kind of Brexit, chosen by the British Government.
‘All the examples … can be solved very easily if the UK decides to stay in the realm of sanitary and phytosanitary control. So here we are dealing with the consequences of Brexit. ”
However, Šefčovič said the commission was in talks with the British government to make the execution of the checks enjoyable in light of the violence of recent weeks.
“Of course we want to make sure we reduce the 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’m sure the UK can do more, and that’s what we want to discuss and what we’re discussing with our British counterparts.
‘The checks could be smoother if we finally get appropriate access to the customs control IT system. Many of these controls can be removed if they find the solution to compliance with appropriate standards for food protection, for phytosanitary control and for all issues related to important elements such as public safety, public health and animal welfare.
‘All these things we proposed to the British Government during the withdrawal agreement and the trade agreement – as you know very well, it was rejected, and that’s why we are now going through very demanding negotiations on how we can implement it. on the ground. “
If Johnson takes the step of invoking Article 16 of the Protocol, it is very confrontational. Relations with the EU have yet to recover after an official in Brussels threatened such a move in January regarding vaccine supplies.
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 to make it work, arguing that if a pragmatic approach to checks is found, the region can have the best of both worlds, and may trade in the EU and the UK without trade barriers.
Loyalists and union leaders, however, want to abandon it and this has contributed to the riots of Easter. DUP counterpart Nigel Dodds described the EU’s approach last week as ‘belligerent’, claiming it ‘ignored the views of trade unions and trampled on the fundamentals of the finished settlement’, including the principle of consent from all communities .
The attempt to blow up a police officer’s car has been denounced across the political spectrum, with Lewis describing it as ‘absolutely heinous’ and the shadow of Northern Ireland’s Louise Haigh calling it ‘ridiculous’.
In a statement, McEwan said: “We consider this to be an attack on a staff member who also serves her community as a part-time officer.”
The protocol divided the voters of Northern Ireland with a poll commissioned by the BBC showing that 48% agree that it should be deleted but 46% disagree. South of the border, 74% agree that it should not be scrapped, which shows good support for the Brexit arrangement.
The poll also shows no majority for a united Ireland with 49% saying they would vote to stay in the UK if a referendum is held today against 43% saying they would vote to leave. South of the border, 51% were in favor of a united Ireland, not enough to justify a referendum.