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“This clearly demonstrates that what this type of device may
have lacked in terms of its sophistication and scale, it more
than made up for in its reckless unpredictability,” Singleton
said. “For a device like this to have been deployed against
police and in such proximity to the public was idiotic. It was
absolute madness.”
The incident took place at about 10:30 p.m. after the attackers
stopped a delivery driver, placed an improvised bomb in his
vehicle and ordered him to drive to the police station,
Singleton said.
Brendan Mullan, chairman of the Northern Ireland Policing Board,
said the device “was sent to kill officers and cause maximum
harm in an attack which was in the heart of a residential area.”
“The people have spoken when they overwhelmingly endorsed the
Good Friday Agreement” in 1998, Mullan said.
“Such acts of violence have no place in a society committed to
peace. We stand united in condemnation of those responsible for
this terror, and in voicing support for the work of the officers
and staff of the PSNI.”
It was the second incident at a police station in recent weeks.
On March 30, police foiled a similar attack on a police station
in Lurgan, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) southwest of Dunmurry.
Two masked men stopped a delivery driver, placed an explosive
device in the trunk of his vehicle and forced him at gunpoint to
take the device to the police station, according to authorities.
Police carried out a controlled explosion after about 100 homes
were evacuated.
The Lurgan attack was probably carried out by dissident
Republican groups in a “pathetic attempt to remain relevant and
provoke fear,” police said.
The Good Friday Agreement largely ended decades of violence
involving Republican groups opposed to British rule and others
who wanted to maintain the region’s ties to the United Kingdom.
Dissident groups that oppose the peace process still carry out
sporadic attacks.
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