Police in Northern Ireland have discovered a major dissident republican weapons cache including a fully primed bomb, homemade rocket-launchers and explosives.
The terror arsenal was discovered on Friday after two days of searches in north Armagh by the Police Service of Northern Ireland. A senior PSNI officer described the weaponry, which was found near a disused house on the outskirts of Lurgan, as “significant and key”.
The location is in a stronghold of the Continuity IRA – the oldest and more hardline of three main dissident republican factions opposed to the peace process and power-sharing in Northern Ireland. The arms and explosives haul also included homemade mortar launchers and a ready-to-go bomb.
These are some of the items uncovered from the hide in the Cornakinnegar Road area of Lurgan. #PSNI pic.twitter.com/YKdxApo7FU
— PSNI (@PoliceServiceNI) August 5, 2016
The security operation has created disruption to the nearby railway linking Belfast and Dublin. The line between Lisburn in County Antrim and Portadown in County Armagh was still closed on Friday evening.
PSNI DS Karen Baxter said the “fully constructed explosive device” her officers uncovered was ready to be used. Baxter said as a result of the search of woodland around the house other terror hides had been found and the security operation was ongoing.
The policing board, which scrutinises the running of the PSNI, welcomed the find. Anne Connolly, the board’s chair, said: “It is a great result for the PSNI to find these firearms/munitions and take them away from those who would have used them to cause harm in our community.”
The security operation near Lurgan marks the second major blow the PSNI has inflicted on the dissident republicans’ secret arsenals this year.
Back in May the PSNI uncovered a terrorist hide in a forest near Larne in County Antrim into which the New IRA had secreted weapons including two anti-personnel mines and an armoured piercing rocket as well as three pipe-bombs and ammunition.
