East Derry MP Gregory Campbell has called for an army bomb disposal base in the North West as a result of the high level of security operations in the area.
A House of Commons Question to the Secretary of State for Defence about the number of occasions military personnel were deployed in Northern Ireland to deal with explosive devices in 2013 revealed that in five months between August and December that, Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) personnel responded to 168 incidents.
Statistics in the Report of the Independent Reviewer of the Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Act 2007 published by the Northern Ireland Office on 16 December last year, confirmed there were 347 EOD call outs in support of the police between August 2012 and July 2013.
The DUP MP was speaking as army technical officers (ATO) were called to deal with a suspect device which had been thrown at a police patrol in Strabane.
Pointing out a high number of “terrorist attacks” carried out by dissident republicans had occurred in the North West area since 2009, especially around Derry and the border area, Mr Campbell said on there was a bomb disposal “call out” every single day in the course of the year the statistics covered.
He added: “There is a logistical issue regarding the time taken for the bomb disposal unit to reach the scene, this often means where a device hasn’t exploded, homes being evacuated and people having to move temporarily to a place of safety until the device can be defused. Consideration should be given to having a secure base for an Army bomb disposal unit in the North West to respond speedily to potential bomb attacks. This kind of security response is required to combat the terror campaign by dissident republicans.”
Mr Campbell added the community also hada part to play and the perpetrators of bomb attacks should receive no support or cover from the people, but instead be brought to justice.
He concluded: “They must not be able to continue the type of murder campaign that others engaged in for so long, which brought only the heartache of innocents and defeat for the perpetrators.”
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