Police officers in Northern Ireland have successfully prevented an IRA terror bomb plot that reportedly intended to cause chaos and threaten US President Joe Biden’s upcoming visit.
According to the authorities on Sunday, the Northern Island Police have prevented an IRA terror bombing plot that is believed to be targeting Biden’s upcoming visit to Belfast on Tuesday.
In a report published by Belfast Telegraph, it was revealed that the members of the paramilitary group, the New IRA, have reportedly been looking to purchase bomb parts in Derry and allegedly schemed to build an explosive device to disrupt President Biden’s diplomatic stopover.
“They were looking for parts to make a bomb,” an unidentified source allegedly told the newspaper.
“The belief is that the New IRA was planning some sort of attack to coincide with Biden’s visit, similar to the mortar attack on the cops in Strabane last November,” the source added.
Following the recent report, the incident last November has resurfaced, when the group reportedly claimed responsibility for the detonation of a roadside bomb that targeted a police vehicle in County Tyrone. Fortunately, two cops escaped injury when the bomb exploded next to their car.
Reports claimed that Thomas Mellon, the leader of the New IRA, wanted a “spectacular” way to undermine the US President’s visit.
“He wanted to have a spectacular, but with all the PSNI raids and Brit searches it’s likely he will have to settle for a riot on Easter Monday,” the source allegedly claimed.
In a report published by the New York Post, it was revealed that “Mellon is on the terror watchlist of MI5, the United Kingdom’s counter-intelligence agency.”
The report also explained that “Biden will visit Belfast on Tuesday to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the US-brokered Good Friday Agreement. The historic pact reached in 1998 ended decades of sectarian fighting between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, known as the Troubles.”
“Former President Bill Clinton, who played a major role in negotiating the deal, also is expected to attend. Biden will also attend a series of other events in Ireland in County Louth and County Mayo, where the president has ancestral roots,” it added.
Biden is expected to deliver a public address at St. Muredach’s Cathedral in Ballina, County Mayo on April 14.
