Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
In the wake of the Bloody Friday attacks in Northern Ireland, the PIRA
began to target economic targets on the British mainland. In the early 1990s,
as the British economy was weakening, the PIRA devised large VBIEDs as a
way to leverage its position in negotiations.
April 1992: The PIRA attacked the Baltic Exchange with a VBIED com-
posed of ammonium nitrate mixed with 99 pounds of Semtex and destroyed
the target, the leading shipping market in London. The bomb killed three
people and caused over $1.3 billion in damages in current U.S. dollars.
April 1993: The Bishopsgate attack saw the PIRA detonate a 1-ton ammo-
nium nitrate device against a London financial target, which was the largest
and most costly attack against a City of London target, resulting in roughly
$2.3 billion dollars in damage. The device was primed by switching on the
hazard lights of the vehicle the VBIED was housed in.
February 1996: The PIRA VBIEds become even more powerful as a
3000-pound ammonium nitrate device, mixed with icing sugar packed
around booster tubes mixed with SEMTEX and packed with detcord made
of PETN and RDX, detonated. The blast resulted in $2 billion in damages.
What is interesting is that this bomb, although larger than others, caused
less damage.
June 1996: The infamous Manchester bomb, which consisted of 3500
pounds of explosives, was placed inside a truck parked in the center of
Manchester. The blast was enormous, causing over $800 million in damages
and releasing a mushroom cloud that rose more than 1000 feet in the sky.
Preponderant Forms of Attacks
One of the few limiting factors facing a terrorist in regard to modes of attack is
simply human imagination. Throughout the course of its history, the IRA and later
the PIRA continued to improvise, using its own research and development capa-
bilities to find new ways to kill—ranging from sniper rifles to the favored weapon
of explosives. The IRA created such weapons as letter bombs—small devices with
gelignite—destroyers that used ammonium nitrate with a Semtex booster.
Long before Al-Qaeda used VBIEDs, the PIRA was on the way to making
VBIEDs as a lethal tactic. This practice not only allowed the PIRA to use new
methods but allowed it to store large amounts of explosives in vehicles, making it
easier to transport explosive devices. No longer did the group have to rely on dyna-
mite but could now build larger bombs using ammonium nitrate and fuel oil and
Semtex as a booster charge. Said one IRA man about the VBIED, “We could feel
the rattle where we stood. Then we knew we were on to something, and it took off
from there.”
