Loyalists blamed for pipe bomb attacks

Army dealt with device found on Coleraine doorstep

Loyalists have been blamed for pipe bomb attacks on the home of a Catholic family in Coleraine and a Catholic church in County Tyrone.

In the attack in Coleraine, the army defused the device after it was found by a Kylemore Road householder on her doorstep at about 0930 BST on Sunday.

The elderly woman picked it up, not realising what it was.

The police said they believe it was thrown at the house some time during Saturday night.

The woman, another adult and five children in the house at the time of the attack escaped injury.

More than 20 houses were evacuated in the street as army bomb experts made the device safe and checked the area for other devices during a three-hour operation.

The police said the fuse on the device had been lit, but had burnt itself out and did not explode.

In January a pipe bomb was left at the house next door. It did not explode.

At that time there were a spate of similar sectarian pipe bomb attacks on houses in the town, and the RUC increased their surveillance and 'stop-and-search' operations in the town to try to deal with the rise in sectarian incidents.

Pipe bomb explodes at church

Meanwhile, the police have said a pipe bomb attack on a Catholic church in Newtownstewart in County Tyrone was also sectarian.

The device exploded outside Glennock church on the Plumbridge Road at 1100 BST on Sunday.

No-one was injured in the attack, but a window in the church was damaged.

RUC Inspector Andy Lemon said was fortunate that no-one was injured.

"We would condemn any attack on any religious buildings. We are treating this as a sectarian attack," he added.

Spate of attacks

Tensions throughout Northern Ireland raised by the loyalist marching season and disputes at loyalist/nationalist community interfaces in Belfast have spilled over into violence in recent weeks.

As calm returned to north and east Belfast after sporadic rioting last week, a spate of pipe bomb and petrol bomb attacks have continued around the province.

Pipe bombs have traditionally been used by loyalist paramilitaries, but people from both communities living in the areas affected by the recent trouble feel their homes are being targeted.

On Friday night loyalists threw a pipe bomb into the house of a Catholic family living off the Cavehill Road in for the second time this week.

Earlier on Friday, loyalist gunmen fired shots at two men standing outside the Ashton community centre in north Belfast before continuing to fire into a room containing young children.

No-one was injured in the attack at Churchill Street, but five people were treated for shock.

In another incident, a home-made bomb in a coffee jar in the garden of a house on Serpentine Gardens near the peaceline security barrier.