Irish rock star and social campaigner Bob Geldof tonight vowed to help get justice for relatives of the Omagh bomb victims.
Speaking before a major fundraising dinner in Britain, the former Boomtown Rats star said: "August 1998 was our September 11. A plan was made to destroy life randomly."
Tonight's event was to help raise some of the stg£2 million for the Omagh families who hope to bring a groundbreaking civil action against the Real IRA before the courts.
Although almost £1 million has been raised, they must find the rest in the coming months. Twenty-nine people, including a pregnant mother expecting twins, were killed in the Omagh bomb.
Tonight’s fundraiser is being held in Warrington, Cheshire, where in March 1993, two children were killed by the Provisional IRA bombs attack.
Geldof said: "The civil action is a whole new weapon against terrorism ... It's a means of showing our contempt to the killers to their faces by exposing them and having them found guilty."
It was a crime that's still beyond belief. The killers are walking around with smirks on their faces. We cannot let them get away with it."
Victor Barker, a solicitor from Weybridge, Surrey, lost his 12-year-old son James in the Omagh bomb. Mr Barker said he was overwhelmed by the support that families of victims had received.
"It's amazing," he said. "This is the first time we have held a function of this kind in the North of England and to have so many people support us is fantastic."
Former Northern Secretary Mr Peter Mandelson, First Minister David Trimble and TV star and journalist Mariella Frostrup were also expected to attend tonight's event.