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NORTHERN IRELAND • ■ -
Nail bomb hits
seven soldiers
BELFAST, Wednes
day (AAP-Reutcr). —
Seven soldiers were in
jured early today when
a nail bomb was
thrown at them.
The eight-man patrol
fired at its attackers when
the bomb' was thrown at
the junction of Ardilea St
and Gracehill St, in the
Ardoync area of Belfast.
Army - reinforcements
were sent to the area and
the injured men were taken
to hospital suffering from
cut hands and legs. One
had a broken arm.
Belfast was still shocked
today at the sudden
violence in which two
people were killed in a
bar yesterday and 35
others were injured.
Guerillas gave only a
few seconds warning as
Ihcy planted their bomb
and sprinted out of the
Red Lion public house in
Sunnyside Street, Bally
nafeigh.
The bomb went off as
people made for the door,
burying them under
mounds of rubble and
bricks. People in a passing
bus were caught in the
blast.
In the chaos a police
man opened lire on the
raiders but they escaped.
As they did so another
bomb went off in a
drapery store on the other
side of a police station
next to the public house.
The blast came after ex
plosions earlier in the day
that severed the main Bel
fast-Dublin railway line
and ripped through a Bel
fast youth - employment
centre, injuring six people
with flying glass.
Unofficial
estimates
Unofficial estimates put
property damage in the
province at £40 million
($85.7 million) since sec
tarian troubles began two
yeArs ago.
The new killing brought
to J48 the death toll since
disturbances began in
1969.
In Britain, political ob
servers felt that the un
easy alliance between the
two leading political part
ies in Northern Ireland
was coming to an end.
The opposition Labour
Parly, they said, would
probably soon call for
direct rule of the province
from London and consid
eration of the withdrawal
of British troops.
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