Horror in Omagh as bomb kills Northern Ireland policeman

Booby trap bomb kills 25-year-old officer preparing to drive to work as David Cameron condemns 'wicked and cowardly' attack

Dissident republican terrorists have killed a young police officer in Omagh. The victim was only a schoolboy when the worst atrocity of Northern Ireland's Troubles was visited upon the same town 13 years ago.

A booby-trap car bomb killed Constable Ronan Kerr outside his home in Omagh, where 29 men, women and children were murdered in 1998. At the time of that massacre Kerr was only 12.

The murder of the young Catholic police officer united unionists and nationalists across Ireland, all of whom vowed to oppose those republicans determined to destabilise the historic power-sharing settlement in the north.

David Cameron "utterly condemned" the bomb attack. "Those who carried out this wicked and cowardly crime will never succeed in dragging Northern Ireland back to a dark and bloody past," he said. "Their actions are rejected by the overwhelming majority of people from all parts of the community."

Referring to the murdered police officer, the prime minister said: "Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and his friends. This is a terrible tragedy for all who knew him and served with him, and for a town that had already suffered so much."

Kerr died after the device exploded beneath his car shortly before 4pm as he was driving to work at his local police station. He is the second member of the Police Service of Northern Ireland to die at the hands of republican dissident paramilitaries opposed to the peace process.

The 25-year-old, who only graduated from police training college three weeks ago, lived in the Highfield Close area of the Co Tyrone town. Families were evacuated from the area as the security forces searched for secondary explosive devices. The scene of the blast was close to the home of the Tyrone Gaelic football team.

Suspicion will fall on one of the three republican dissident terrorist groups that have resumed their violent campaigns in the north of Ireland over recent weeks. Ireland's recently elected prime minister, Enda Kenny, also condemned those behind the murder last night describing it as a "pointless act of terrorism".

The province's first minister, Peter Robinson, said it was an evil act by a minuscule group that wanted to drag Ireland back into the past but that the community would unite against such violent threats.

Sinn F�in's president, Gerry Adams, sent his condolences to the family of the murdered officer. "Sinn F�in is determined that those responsible will not set back the progress of the pace and political process," Adams said.

The Ulster Unionist leader, Tom Elliott, described the attack as "evil and cowardly", while Democratic Unionist Jonathan Bell said he was devastated over news of the police officer's murder. He called Kerr a "young hero serving his entire community".

The attack in Omagh will conjure up memories of August 1998 when a Real IRA car bomb exploded in the centre of the market town. With the death of 29 people and two unborn children, Omagh was the single biggest loss of life during 35 years of conflict in Northern Ireland.

No one was convicted of direct involvement in the atrocity although some of the families of Omagh's victims later took a landmark civil action against a number of men they claimed were leading figures in the Real IRA. The alleged Real IRA leaders are currently appealing against a high court ruling in Belfast last year that they must pay compensation to the victims and their families.

The Omagh bomb also resulted in a damning police ombudsman report that severely criticised the former Royal Ulster Constabulary's handling of intelligence material prior to the attack. The atrocity came just five months after the Good Friday agreement was signed marking a historic compromise between unionism and nationalism.

Although a faction of the Real IRA declared a ceasefire in response to public outrage over Omagh, more militant dissidents broke away and formed a number of units dedicated to thwarting the peace process. One of those organisations became �glaigh na h�ireann (ONH). The group has attracted a number of former IRA bombers. Last year it detonated a bomb underneath the car of a Catholic police officer, Peadar Heffron. Heffron was a well-known Gaelic footballer and lost his legs in the blast, which was similar to the one that killed the PSNI officer in Omagh.

In March 2009, a Continuity IRA sniper shot Constable Stephen Carroll in Craigavon, just 24 hours after the Real IRA had murdered two British soldiers outside a military barracks in the town of Antrim.

Henry McDonald

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