ONH leadership suspected of bomb attack on PSNI officer

ANTI-TERRORIST detectives probing a murder bid on an off-duty police officer are desperate to trace three late night revellers.

The PSNI have revealed that two women and a man took unordered taxis from Belfast city centre and were dropped in the east of the city between Saturday and Sunday.

The police officer, his wife and two young children were about to leave their Upper Newtownards Road home for lunch last Sunday when a booby trap bomb was discovered under the family car.

Police say they want to speak to the three people who travelled in a taxi on two separate occasions in the early hours of last Saturday and Sunday mornings.

A PSNI spokesman said officers want to talk to two women who got into a taxi outside Thompson’s Garage at Donegall Square East at around 2.45am on the morning of Saturday 29 December.

“After leaving a man off in Newtownards, they were eventually dropped off in the Clonduff estate at the top of the Castlereagh Road in east Belfast,” the spokesman said.

Army bomb experts defuse car bomb

Police also want to talk to a man who got a taxi from Belfast city centre at around 2.30am on the morning of Sunday 30 December and travelled to the Manse Road/Doagh Road area of Mossley.

“Neither of these private hire taxis was ordered from a depot. They were hailed by the revellers from the street,” the spokesman added.

Detectives are appealing for these people to contact them at Ladas Drive on 0845 600 8000.

Dissident republican group Oglaigh na hEireann (ONH) is now one of the prime suspects for the attack.

ONH was believed to have behind a botched booby trap bomb attack late last year on a soldier in west Belfast.

The device fell off the car and was later defused by Army bomb disposal experts.