IRA dissidents accused of planting bomb

DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) — Northern Ireland’s police chief accused Irish Republican Army dissidents Tuesday of planting a booby-trap bomb that exploded overnight beneath a policeman’s car, destroying the vehicle and wounding the officer.

The bomb, attached to the bottom of the car beneath the driver’s seat, detonated as the officer was driving to work Monday night near Castlederg in the remote, rural west of Northern Ireland.

The officer was saved by a civilian who dragged him from the burning wreckage, but suffered serious leg wounds that required two surgeries Tuesday, the Police Service of Northern Ireland said. Politicians from all sides — most notably from the IRA-linked Sinn Fein party — united to denounce the dissidents.

Sinn Fein deputy leader Martin McGuinness, the former IRA commander who serves today as the senior Catholic in Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government, visited the wounded officer in hospital. It was the first time in Northern Ireland history that a senior Sinn Fein figure made such a gesture.