IRA 'is teaching Palestinians how to blow up Israeli soldiers' in West Bank

Monday April 29, 2002 10:30

by David Bamber - The Sunday Telegraph

THE IRA has been teaching Palestinian terrorists to build booby-trap bombs for use against Israeli soldiers, according to a British explosives expert working in the Jenin refugee camp.

It should be recalled that Senator Mitchell was appointed to propose a path to peace between Israel and the Palestinians in light of his "success" in Ireland....

THE IRA has been teaching Palestinian terrorists to build booby-trap bombs for use against Israeli soldiers, according to a British explosives expert working in the Jenin refugee camp.

Paul Collinson, a former Royal Engineers bomb disposal officer working for the Red Cross, said that the devices he had found were identical in every detail to those he had encountered in Northern Ireland.

He told The Telegraph that he had discovered more than 200 explosive devices while working in the camp in the West Bank after the recent Israeli invasion. He said that he was convinced that the bombs were either
Supplied by the IRA or made under their supervision. He said: "When I saw the bombs it was like a flashback to Northern Ireland. "The pipe bombs I found in Jenin are exact replicas of those in Northern Ireland. The size of bomb, the way they put the nail in, the way of igniting it with a light-bulb filament, where they drilled the holes through, the use of a command wire and the means of initiating the bomb; these are all the same. "They have all the hallmarks of originating from Ireland. When you put two and two together then it seems that they could well have been trained by the IRA."

Thirteen Israeli soldiers were killed in the street battle for Jenin, which was thought to be a centre of activity for Palestinian suicide bombers. Mr Collinson said that the booby-trap bombs used in Jenin and Northern Ireland were made from the same ingredients - nitrogen-based fertiliser, diesel and sugar. He also suggested that the tactics used by Palestinian militants in the battle for Jenin mirrored those of IRA attacks on British soldiers. He said: "The bombs were placed in alleyways and in houses. The Palestinians attempted to lure the soldiers into these alleyways which were booby-trapped, and then explode the devices with a command wire. I have seen similar tactics used by the IRA in Armagh, Londonderry and Belfast."

Despite working as an explosives expert in the Palestinian territories over the past two years - as well as Egypt, Colombia, Afghanistan and other countries since leaving Northern Ireland - Mr Collinson has not seen seen replicas of the IRA bombs anywhere other than recently in Jenin.

The revelation will fuel international concerns about the role being played by the IRA during its ceasefire. Israel has already raised concerns about links between the Republicans and Palestinian groups. It is known that the IRA had contacts with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in the 1970s. In the 1980s, IRA members travelled to Libya to meet Palestinian representatives.

As The Telegraph disclosed last month, the Israeli intelligence service Mossad asked British security agencies to check on the movements of known IRA killers to help identify a sniper who shot dead seven soldiers and three civilians in 25 minutes - using 25 bullets from a bolt-action rifle.

This latest revelation of the IRA's international connections comes after Wednesday's US Senate hearing into the Republicans' links with Farc, the Colombian terrorist group.

Three suspected IRA men were arrested last summer after being captured allegedly trying to build a "super-bomb" in the Colombian jungle. James Monaghan, the IRA's head of engineering, Martin McAuley, an expert mortar bomb technician, and Niall Connolly, Sinn Fein's representative in Cuba, were detained by the Colombian military last August. This paper also revealed last week that the IRA had bought 20 guns from Russia, in breach of the Good Friday ceasefire.

Last night, a US government official said that evidence of a Palestinian link would raise further questions over the IRA's ceasefire. He said: "If there was clear and convincing evidence that the IRA has been
training Palestinians in bomb-making techniques, then we are facing a grave and grievous situation for the IRA.

"It would surely lead to a reassessment of whether the IRA should not be put on the designated list of terrorist organisations with a global reach. "The implications could not be worse for the IRA."

Detectives in Northern Ireland also think that a senior IRA commander in Belfast was one of 12 other suspected terrorists who entered Colombia last year. Blurred photographs of the suspects were given to the US Senate hearings on Wednesday by the Colombians.

The suspect travelled to Colombia on a false passport, but has now been identified by intelligence agencies in Colombia and the United States.
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