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IRA 'had plans to attack English power stations'

Published on: 30 Oct 2019

Terror group the IRA had plans to attack power stations in the south-east of England before the Good Friday peace agreement, an inside source has claimed.

Former US-based gun runner John Crawley, speaking on a BBC documentary about the Troubles in Northern Ireland to be broadcast this week, said the plot was created in the mid-1990s and would have involved targeting electricity supplies to create maximum disruption.

However, he said the attacks never took place because extensive surveillance operations by British police and MI5 resulted in key IRA bombers being either caught or killed.

The signing of the Good Friday Agreement also followed, which led to the relatively peaceful ending of the Troubles and the eventual disbanding of the IRA.

A number of locations in England were targeted by the IRA's bombs, including the London Docklands in 1996 and Manchester's Arndale Centre the same year.

A bomb attack in Warrington in 1993 that the Provisional IRA claimed responsibility for also claimed the lives of two young boys.