Bomb alerts ‘part of Irish dissident campaign’

Counter terrorism police and military bomb disposal units are investigating

A bomb disposal unit deployed to investigate one of the 'suspicious packages' in Oxford, which the Ministry of Defence said was routine procedure (Mark Lambourne)

A series of bomb alerts in England this week is an attempt by republican dissidents to mount a letter bombing campaign, something not seen on the British mainland since the early 1990s, security experts warned Thursday night.

Military units are on heightened alert after suspected explosive devices were found at armed forces recruitment offices across south-east England on Thursday. Army bomb disposal teams were called out to Oxford, Slough, Kent and Brighton.

This came after a suspicious package was sent to an army office in Aldershot on Wednesday, and “basic but viable explosive devices” were found in Chatham and Reading on Tuesday, according to police officers from the South East Counter Terrorism Unit (Sectu).

Explosive devices have been found in seven different parts of the country in the past three days. Amid mounting concern, David Cameron chaired a meeting of the Government’s Cobra emergencies committee on Thursday to discuss the threat.

One of the suspect devices sent to an armed forces recruitment office had a Republic of Ireland postmark, the Press Association claimed Thursday night. Another suspect package was found in a vehicle which was stopped and searched at RAF Mildenhall, Suffolk, on Thursday, but it is understood that this was a false alarm and is not related to the other incidents.

Colonel Richard Kemp, former Cobra chairman, told The Independent: “Irish dissidents have certainly done this sort of thing before and targeted recruiting offices. Producing a viable letter bomb would be within their capability.” He added that dissident republicans “have wanted to do something like this for a long time and so it wouldn’t surprise me if it was them.”