IRA rebels shoot at police base

2009-12-31 17:03

Dublin - Police say suspected IRA dissidents have fired several gunshots at the major police station in Northern Ireland's "bandit country" of South Armagh but injured nobody.

The heavily fortified barracks in Crossmaglen, the main town in the border region, was repeatedly attacked throughout the Irish Republican Army's failed 1970-1997 campaign to force Northern Ireland out of the United Kingdom.

IRA dissidents still mount occasional attacks on security forces today.

Police said on Thursday they are investigating the overnight gunfire, which riddled exterior walls of the base but hit nobody inside, but have made no arrests.

South Armagh has long been nicknamed "bandit country" because of its reputation as a power base for IRA factions and cross-border smugglers.

- AP