On Friday, Manchester Police announced the arrest of a man in connection with the bomb attack claimed by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) that struck the center of this northern English city in 1996.
“A man was arrested last night (Thursday) at Birmingham Airport on suspicion of terrorist offences,” Manchester Police said in a statement. “This arrest is in connection with the investigation into the IRA (Irish Republican Army) bomb that struck central Manchester in 1996,” she added.
More than 200 injured
This attack targeted the city’s commercial center and had injured more than 200 people. A van bomb had exploded in front of one of the entrances to the building. More than 1,000 m2 of offices and shops had been destroyed, causing 880 million euros in damage. The arrested man, about whom police did not provide any details, will be questioned by agents responsible for the fight against terrorism, the statement said.
Police said they were “determined (…) regardless of the time that has passed” to find those responsible for the attack. The latter was part of the context of the Troubles, those three bloody decades in Northern Ireland which left more than 3,500 dead, opposed by mainly Catholic Nationalist Republicans to mainly Protestant Unionist Loyalists as well as to the British Army.
This violence ended in 1998 with the Good Friday Peace Agreement.