Blast Implies End of Loyalist Truce in N. Ireland

BELFAST, Northern Ireland —  A car bomb wounded a prominent Irish Republican Army supporter Sunday, signaling the apparent end of a 26-month truce by pro-British Protestant militants.

No one claimed responsibility for the small bomb, which could have large ramifications for Northern Ireland’s deteriorating peace process.

Loyalists--Protestant militants who want to maintain British rule in Northern Ireland--kept to their cease-fire for more than nine months despite the IRA’s decision to resume hostilities in February.

An end to their truce could trigger a new round of tit-for-tat violence between the two sides, as well as the possible exclusion of political parties affiliated with loyalist militants from negotiations over the future of the province.

The bomb detonated when 35-year-old Eddie Copeland started his car outside his parents’ house in Ardoyne, a Roman Catholic enclave of north Belfast surrounded by Protestant districts.

The blast blew off the car’s hood but caused little other damage. Copeland suffered leg wounds.

Copeland is a known IRA supporter.

The cease-fire by the loyalist groups had held through a series of IRA attacks, including the Oct. 7 bombing of the British army’s headquarters in Northern Ireland.

But retaliation became likely after an IRA gunman on Friday shot at several police officers guarding a Protestant politician at a children’s hospital. One officer was wounded.