Belfast, U.K.

Real IRA bombs MI5: A bomb timed to coincide with a milestone in the Northern Ireland peacemaking process went off outside the Belfast headquarters of MI5, the British domestic intelligence service, but the bravery of its unwilling courier averted mass casualties. Militants from the Real IRA, a splinter group of the now-disbanded Irish Republican Army, hijacked a taxi and ordered its driver to take the bomb to MI5 headquarters, threatening to kill him and his family if he alerted police. But the driver, who was not publicly identified, shouted, “It’s a bomb!” as soon as he got to the perimeter entrance, giving police enough time to evacuate nearby houses. The blast injured one person, just minutes after midnight—when Britain officially transferred power over policing and justice from London to local authorities.

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