The RUC was last night questioning four men after intercepting what appears to have been a dissident republican mortar attack on a police barracks in the Border area of Co Fermanagh.
The men are from the Border area between Fermanagh and Cavan, two from the village of Kinawley. According to sources two are well known to the Garda and RUC as dissident republicans but little is known about two younger men arrested at the scene.
At 9.15 p.m. on Saturday the RUC stopped a white transit van and three cars at a checkpoint just inside the North at Teemore, near Derrylin on the main Dublin to Enniskillen route.
In the back of the van police found a large mortar. The device, containing around 80lbs of explosive, is of the same type developed by the Provisional IRA in the early 1990s. It is known as the Mark 15 or barrack buster.
Dissident republicans have been manufacturing the device. Since April the group has used it in three attacks on security bases in the North. The last attack was on September 13th when a similar mortar landed in the car-park of Armagh RUC barracks but failed to explode.
It is believed the dissidents were intent on firing the device at either Derrylin or Lisnaskea barracks. On April 12th another mortar was fired at Rosslea barracks, only a few miles away. During Saturday night's incident, the RUC said two shots were fired by a police officer but no one was injured. Detectives also located false number plates and two-way radios in a follow-up search. Three cars were found abandoned at the scene. The van was bought at Mount Nugent, Co Cavan, last week.
The Ulster Unionist MP for Fermanagh-South Tyrone, Mr Ken Maginnis, blamed dissident republicans for the device. "A very serious incident has been foiled and one has to congratulate both the RUC and those cross-Border forces who have co-operated with them. But it's not enough, quite bluntly. Whatever the security forces do, the two governments have now got to make a decision whether they are prepared to allow time and space for the `Real IRA' and other dissidents," he added.
Sub-divisional commander Supt Eddie Graham yesterday paid tribute to "the vigilance and bravery" of the RUC officers involved in the operation and said they had "undoubtedly prevented death and destruction". Part of the village was cordoned off after police discovered the device and nine families had to be evacuated overnight. Army technical officers are still examining the device.
Police on both sides of the Border have become concerned at the continuing growth of the dissident republicans who are opposed to the Belfast Agreement. There have been some 23 attacks in the North and three in London attributed to the dissident groups, the Continuity and "Real IRA".
At the weekend the Continuity IRA admitted responsibility for a booby-trap bomb attack in Castlewellan, Co Down on November 1st in which an RUC officer lost a leg and two fingers.
It appears the Fermanagh attack was designed to coincide with Remembrance Day. Eleven people were killed in Enniskillen in an IRA bombing on Remembrance Day 1987.
The North's Security Minister, Mr Adam Ingram, praised the "professionalism, dedication and skill" of the RUC in intercepting the device.