IRA 'is teaching Palestinians how to blow up Israeli soldiers' in West Bank

By David Bamber, Home Affairs Correspondent The Sunday Telegraph 28 April
2002

[IMRA: It should be recalled that Senator Mitchell was appointed to propose
a path to peace between Israel and the Palestinians in light of his
"success" in Ireland....]

THE IRA has been teaching Palestinian terrorists to build booby-trap bombs
for use against Israeli soldiers, according to a British explosives expert
working in the Jenin refugee camp.

Paul Collinson, a former Royal Engineers bomb disposal officer working for
the Red Cross, said that the devices he had found were identical in every
detail to those he had encountered in Northern Ireland.

He told The Telegraph that he had discovered more than 200 explosive devices
while working in the camp in the West Bank after the recent Israeli
invasion. He said that he was convinced that the bombs were either supplied
by the IRA or made under their supervision.

He said: "When I saw the bombs it was like a flashback to Northern Ireland.

"The pipe bombs I found in Jenin are exact replicas of those in Northern
Ireland. The size of bomb, the way they put the nail in, the way of igniting
it with a light-bulb filament, where they drilled the holes through, the use
of a command wire and the means of initiating the bomb; these are all the
same.

"They have all the hallmarks of originating from Ireland. When you put two
and two together then it seems that they could well have been trained by the
IRA."

Thirteen Israeli soldiers were killed in the street battle for Jenin, which
was thought to be a centre of activity for Palestinian suicide bombers.

Mr Collinson said that the booby-trap bombs used in Jenin and Northern
Ireland were made from the same ingredients - nitrogen-based fertiliser,
diesel and sugar.

He also suggested that the tactics used by Palestinian militants in the
battle for Jenin mirrored those of IRA attacks on British soldiers.

He said: "The bombs were placed in alleyways and in houses. The Palestinians
attempted to lure the soldiers into these alleyways which were
booby-trapped, and then explode the devices with a command wire. I have seen
similar tactics used by the IRA in Armagh, Londonderry and Belfast."

Despite working as an explosives expert in the Palestinian territories over
the past two years - as well as Egypt, Colombia, Afghanistan and other
countries since leaving Northern Ireland - Mr Collinson has not seen seen
replicas of the IRA bombs anywhere other than recently in Jenin.

The revelation will fuel international concerns about the role being played
by the IRA during its ceasefire. Israel has already raised concerns about
links between the Republicans and Palestinian groups. It is known that the
IRA had contacts with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in
the 1970s. In the 1980s, IRA members travelled to Libya to meet Palestinian
representatives.

As The Telegraph disclosed last month, the Israeli intelligence service
Mossad asked British security agencies to check on the movements of known
IRA killers to help identify a sniper who shot dead seven soldiers and three
civilians in 25 minutes - using 25 bullets from a bolt-action rifle.

This latest revelation of the IRA's international connections comes after
Wednesday's US Senate hearing into the Republicans' links with Farc, the
Colombian terrorist group.

Three suspected IRA men were arrested last summer after being captured
allegedly trying to build a "super-bomb" in the Colombian jungle. James
Monaghan, the IRA's head of engineering, Martin McAuley, an expert mortar
bomb technician, and Niall Connolly, Sinn Fein's representative in Cuba,
were detained by the Colombian military last August. This paper also
revealed last week that the IRA had bought 20 guns from Russia, in breach of
the Good Friday ceasefire.

Last night, a US government official said that evidence of a Palestinian
link would raise further questions over the IRA's ceasefire.

He said: "If there was clear and convincing evidence that the IRA has been
training Palestinians in bomb-making techniques, then we are facing a grave
and grievous situation for the IRA.

"It would surely lead to a reassessment of whether the IRA should not be put
on the designated list of terrorist organisations with a global reach.

"The implications could not be worse for the IRA."

Detectives in Northern Ireland also think that a senior IRA commander in
Belfast was one of 12 other suspected terrorists who entered Colombia last
year. Blurred photographs of the suspects were given to the US Senate
hearings on Wednesday by the Colombians.

The suspect travelled to Colombia on a false passport, but has now been
identified by intelligence agencies in Colombia and the United States.