THE IRA last night claimed responsibility for an attempt to kill John Major and members of the Cabinet with a salvo of improvised mortar bombs as they debated the Gulf crisis at No 10 Downing Street.
The three bombs, fired from a van which had stopped on a Whitehall street corner, came within yards of their target. One landed in the back garden of No 10, only 40ft from the building. It scorched the rear wall, made a crater several feet wide and shattered the upper windows, sending a blast of cold air into a meeting of the War Cabinet.
It was a ╥daring, well planned, but badly executed attack,╙ said Commander George Churchill-Coleman, head of Scotland Yard╒s anti-terrorist branch. He denied there had been a breach of security. Police approached the van as soon as it stopped.
But an IRA statement issued in Dublin last night claimed the attack breached the heightened security precautions mounted since the beginning of the Gulf war. ╥Let the British government understand that, while nationalist people in the six counties are forced to live under British rule, then the British Cabinet will be forced to meet in bunkers.╙
After the boldest such mainland assault since the Brighton bombing of October 1984, Mr Major told the Commons that the IRA╒s tactics had failed to change policies by ╥one single iota╙.
╥Our determination to beat terrorism cannot be beaten by terrorism. The IRA╒s record is one of failure in every respect, and that failure was demonstrated yet again today. It╒s about time they learned that democracies cannot be intimidated by terrorism, and we treat them with contempt.╙
The Queen took the rare step of altering a prepared speech to condemn those responsible and said the bombers would never succeed in undermining Britain╒s democratic system.
Mr Churchill-Coleman said the van had been stationary for only ╥seconds or minutes╙ when the mortars went off, leaving it in flames. It was a cowardly attack with inaccurate weapons which could have cause widespread death and injury. Four people were injured.
Two of the bombs landed near a police post on Mountbatten Green, just beyond the garden of No 10, where they failed to explode but burst into flames. A witness said they lay burning ╥like bloody great Roman candles╙.
