- BELFAST (Reuters) - A manhunt
is under way for a former Irish Republican Army bombmaker suspected of
training Palestinian militants in the West Bank, newspapers have reported.
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- Israeli security sources confirmed on Sunday they were
looking for an Irish suspect but declined to give further details, citing
a gagging order slapped on the case by Israeli authorities.
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- Israel has been on alert for attacks by foreigners acting
on behalf of a Palestinian uprising in the occupied West Bank and Gaza
Strip since two British Muslims carried out a suicide bombing at a Tel
Aviv nightclub in April, killing three people.
-
- According to reports in the Observer and Dublin's Sunday
Independent the suspect had been a member of the mainstream IRA, but switched
allegiances to the dissident Real IRA splinter group four years ago.
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- The papers say he entered Israel on a British passport
and slipped into the West Bank.
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- Palestinian militants have largely suspended attacks
as part of a truce brokered by the Palestinian leadership in order to advance
a U.S.-backed "road map" to peace. Yet some West Bank-based militant
offshoots have vowed to go on fighting.
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- Links with Northern Ireland stretch back to the early
days of the three decade conflict between Catholic republicans fighting
to end British rule and Protestant loyalists committed to maintaining it.
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- Within Israel's security services, it is believed a West
Bank sniper who killed 10 Israeli soldiers and settlers in March 2002 may
have been an IRA-linked mercenary.
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- In hardline Catholic districts of Belfast it is common
to see pro-Palestinian slogans painted on walls, while in staunchly Protestant
areas Israeli flags are sometimes flown alongside British flags and loyalist
paramilitary banners.
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