The Northern Ireland peace process has come came under strain after the latest attempted attack by dissident Republicans saw a suspected car bomb left outside a west Belfast police station that led to 100 families from a loyalist area being forced out of their homes.
The last 72 hours have seen intensified activity by anti-ceasefire Republicans but yesterday's incident was the first time that a loyalist community has been significantly disrupted.
Army bomb disposal officers carried out several controlled explosions on the car left outside New Barnsley police station, west Belfast. Women and children were forced to spend the night and this morning in a local community centre in the Protestant Springmartin district.
Among those who had to flee their homes was Independent Unionist councillor Frank McCoubrey. He described the evacuation as "utter chaos".
McCoubrey said there were "families lifting children, there were old age pensioners. Up to 100 families were moved from their homes, young children are screaming".
He added: "This is a community that has suffered at the hands of interface violence and 40 years of the Troubles. We thought those days were in the past".
Security sources fear attacks that impact on unionist working class communities could put fresh pressure on Ulster loyalists to respond violently.
Meanwhile, the targeting of a British army major at his home in a unionist-dominated town on the coast miles from any nationalist area marks an increased sophistication in the intelligence gathering of the dissidents. The Guardian
