PROTESTANT paramilitaries last night fired a missile at the top
security Crumlin Road Jail in Belfast. The roof of A wing, where
suspected republican and loyalist terrorists are held, was damaged but
no-one was injured.
All prisoners in the jail, which was visited last week by the Northern
Ireland Secretary Sir Patrick Mayhew, were immediately ordered back to
their cells.
The so-called Loyalist Military Command last night claimed
responsibility. It is believed that a gang hijacked a taxi, fired the
missile, and made off.
In a statement, the group said it carried out the attack on 47
republicans in A3 dining hall in revenge for the murders of the two
loyalist prisoners in November last year.
Two remand prisoners were killed when an IRA bomb exploded inside a
prison canteen just over a year ago.
The mother of one of the republican remand prisoners at the jail said
the loyalists came dangerously close to hitting their target. Mrs
Margaret Hillick said her son would have been in the dining hall at the
time the missile was fired.
She went to the jail immediately after the attack to inquire about his
safety but said a governor refused to meet her.
She said: ''My son would have been in the dining hall around that
time. They (the loyalists) had good information. They knew republicans
would have been in the hall. They got inside
information from someone.''
About a mile away in the republican New Lodge district up to 20 shots
were fired into the back of a house at Hillman Street. No-one was
injured.
Meanwhile, a member of Sinn Fein died yesterday after being shot by
loyalist paramilitaries in County Antrim.
Mr Malachy Carey, 36, a former republican prisoner, was the fifth
member of Sinn Fein to be murdered by the outlawed Ulster Freedom
Fighters in the past 18 months.
Police said a man is being questioned about the killing.
Mr Carey, from Loughguille, was hit twice in nearby Ballymoney as he
waited for his girlfriend, a hairdresser, to leave work on Saturday
evening.
He was wounded in the thigh and at first it was thought his wounds
were not life threatening. But his condition deteriorated overnight and
he died later in hospital.
The UFF admitted the shooting.
Mr Carey was a Sinn Fein candidate in the last Northern Ireland local
government elections three years ago.
He once served a lengthy prison sentence for terrorist related
offences and after his release had spent some time living in the
republic.
It was revealed last night that police warned Mr Carey three years ago
that Protestant paramilitaries had his personal details.
It was believed this referred to missing security force documents.
Police also revealed last night that the IRA used an improvised flame
thrower to attack an Army look-out post
in Crossmaglen, South Armagh.
The post was sprayed with a highly-flammable mixture from a slurry
tank which was pulled into position by a tractor. The top part of the
post was badly damaged in the attack on Saturday night but no-one was
injured.
Meanwhile, a 36-year-old man whose legs were amputated following an
IRA punishment shooting in Londonderry last Tuesday night has died in
hospital.
Mr John Collett had been fighting for his life in Altnagelvin
Hospital.
Northern Ireland security chiefs have put every available police
officer and soldier on full alert amid heightening fears that the IRA is
planning more bomb attacks in the run up to Christmas.
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