Army's top bomb expert 'sent to Northern Ireland'
THE Ministry of Defence (MOD) has refused to discuss claims that one of the most senior counter-explosives officers in the British military has been sent to Northern Ireland to help combat the republican threat.
Yesterday's edition of the Independent newspaper said the officer has extensive experience of dealing with improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Afghanistan.
It claimed that military and security officials met in Belfast on Tuesday to discuss increasing the number of bomb-disposal officers in the wake of the ongoing campaign of dissident violence.
The report claimed the senior officer is to "plan the strategy to combat the rising tide of violence from dissident republicans".
An MOD spokesman told the News Letter yesterday that it did not comment "on operational or tactical matters".
The Independent report quoted an "unnamed senior officer" who said the number of bomb disposal personnel deployed to Northern Ireland has risen to almost the same level seen at the end of the Army's 38-year military operation here in July 2007.
The paper also claimed that Army IED specialists are now being "regularly rotated between Helmand and Ulster" and MI5 agents have been diverted from monitoring Islamic militants to dissidents.
The report came on the same day that 170 pupils were evacuated from Crumlin Primary School due to a bomb scare.
On Monday, an eight-year-old schoolboy at St Comgall's Primary School in Antrim picked up a pipe bomb in the school playground.
It is believed loyalists were responsible for that incident.
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Weather for Belfast
Sunday 27 May 2012
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Temperature: 13 C to 23 C
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