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Downing Street mortar attack
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Downing Street mortar attack
The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) launched three homemade mortar shells at 10 Downing Street, London, the headquarters of the British government, on 7 February 1991. The goal was to assassinate Prime Minister John Major and his war cabinet, who were meeting to discuss the Gulf War.
One of the 140 pound (64 kg) mortar shells exploded in the back garden of Number 10, a few yards from the Cabinet Office. Due to the presence of bomb-resistant windows, none of the cabinet were hurt, though four other people received minor injuries, including two Metropolitan Police officers. The other two shells overshot Downing Street and landed on a green nearby.
During the Troubles, as part of its armed campaign against British rule in Northern Ireland, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) repeatedly used homemade mortars against targets in Northern Ireland. The most notable occasion was the 1985 Newry mortar attack which killed nine members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary. The IRA carried out many attacks in England, but none involved mortars. In December 1988, items used in mortar construction and technical details regarding the weapon's trajectory were found during a raid in Battersea, South London, by members of the Metropolitan Police Anti-Terrorist Branch. In the late 1980s, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was top of the IRA's list for assassination, following the failed attempt on her life in the Brighton hotel bombing.
Security around Downing Street had been stepped up at a cost of £800,000 following increased IRA activity in England in 1988, including the addition of a police guard post and security gates at the end of the street. Plans to leave a car bomb on a street near Downing Street and detonate it by remote control as Thatcher's official car was driving by had been ruled out by the IRA's Army Council owing to the likelihood of civilian casualties, which some Army Council members argued would have been politically counter-productive.
The Army Council instead sanctioned a mortar attack on Downing Street and, in mid-1990, two IRA members travelled to London to plan the attack. One was knowledgeable about the trajectory of mortars and the other, from the IRA's Belfast Brigade, was familiar with their manufacture. An active service unit bought a Ford Transit van and rented a garage. An IRA co-ordinator procured the explosives and materials needed to make the mortars. The unit began making the mortars and cutting a hole in the roof of the van for the mortars to be fired through. They reconnoitred locations in Whitehall to find a suitable place from which the mortars could be fired at the back of 10 Downing Street, the official residence and office of the British prime minister.
Once preparations were complete, the two IRA members returned to Ireland, as the group's leadership considered them valuable personnel and did not wish to risk them being arrested in any follow-up operation by the security services. In November 1990, Thatcher unexpectedly resigned from office, but the Army Council decided the planned attack should still go ahead, targeting her successor John Major. The IRA planned to attack when Major and his ministers were likely to be meeting at Downing Street and waited until the date of a planned cabinet meeting was publicly known.
On the morning of 7 February 1991, Major's war cabinet, along with other senior government and military officials, were meeting at Downing Street to discuss the ongoing Gulf War. As well as Major, those present included politicians Douglas Hurd, Tom King, Norman Lamont, Peter Lilley, Patrick Mayhew, David Mellor and John Wakeham; civil servants Robin Butler, Percy Cradock, Gus O'Donnell and Charles Powell; and Chief of the Defence Staff David Craig. As the meeting began, an IRA member was driving the van to the launch site at the junction of Horse Guards Avenue and Whitehall, about 200 yards (180 m) from Downing Street.
On arrival, the driver parked the van and left the scene on a waiting motorcycle. Several minutes later at 10:08 am, as a policeman was walking towards the van to investigate it, three mortar shells were launched from a Mark 10 homemade mortar, followed by the explosion of a pre-set incendiary device. This device was designed to destroy any forensic evidence and set the van on fire. Each shell was four feet six inches (1.4 m) long, weighed 140 pounds (60 kg), and carried a 40-pound (20 kg) payload of the plastic explosive Semtex.
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Downing Street mortar attack
The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) launched three homemade mortar shells at 10 Downing Street, London, the headquarters of the British government, on 7 February 1991. The goal was to assassinate Prime Minister John Major and his war cabinet, who were meeting to discuss the Gulf War.
One of the 140 pound (64 kg) mortar shells exploded in the back garden of Number 10, a few yards from the Cabinet Office. Due to the presence of bomb-resistant windows, none of the cabinet were hurt, though four other people received minor injuries, including two Metropolitan Police officers. The other two shells overshot Downing Street and landed on a green nearby.
During the Troubles, as part of its armed campaign against British rule in Northern Ireland, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) repeatedly used homemade mortars against targets in Northern Ireland. The most notable occasion was the 1985 Newry mortar attack which killed nine members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary. The IRA carried out many attacks in England, but none involved mortars. In December 1988, items used in mortar construction and technical details regarding the weapon's trajectory were found during a raid in Battersea, South London, by members of the Metropolitan Police Anti-Terrorist Branch. In the late 1980s, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was top of the IRA's list for assassination, following the failed attempt on her life in the Brighton hotel bombing.
Security around Downing Street had been stepped up at a cost of £800,000 following increased IRA activity in England in 1988, including the addition of a police guard post and security gates at the end of the street. Plans to leave a car bomb on a street near Downing Street and detonate it by remote control as Thatcher's official car was driving by had been ruled out by the IRA's Army Council owing to the likelihood of civilian casualties, which some Army Council members argued would have been politically counter-productive.
The Army Council instead sanctioned a mortar attack on Downing Street and, in mid-1990, two IRA members travelled to London to plan the attack. One was knowledgeable about the trajectory of mortars and the other, from the IRA's Belfast Brigade, was familiar with their manufacture. An active service unit bought a Ford Transit van and rented a garage. An IRA co-ordinator procured the explosives and materials needed to make the mortars. The unit began making the mortars and cutting a hole in the roof of the van for the mortars to be fired through. They reconnoitred locations in Whitehall to find a suitable place from which the mortars could be fired at the back of 10 Downing Street, the official residence and office of the British prime minister.
Once preparations were complete, the two IRA members returned to Ireland, as the group's leadership considered them valuable personnel and did not wish to risk them being arrested in any follow-up operation by the security services. In November 1990, Thatcher unexpectedly resigned from office, but the Army Council decided the planned attack should still go ahead, targeting her successor John Major. The IRA planned to attack when Major and his ministers were likely to be meeting at Downing Street and waited until the date of a planned cabinet meeting was publicly known.
On the morning of 7 February 1991, Major's war cabinet, along with other senior government and military officials, were meeting at Downing Street to discuss the ongoing Gulf War. As well as Major, those present included politicians Douglas Hurd, Tom King, Norman Lamont, Peter Lilley, Patrick Mayhew, David Mellor and John Wakeham; civil servants Robin Butler, Percy Cradock, Gus O'Donnell and Charles Powell; and Chief of the Defence Staff David Craig. As the meeting began, an IRA member was driving the van to the launch site at the junction of Horse Guards Avenue and Whitehall, about 200 yards (180 m) from Downing Street.
On arrival, the driver parked the van and left the scene on a waiting motorcycle. Several minutes later at 10:08 am, as a policeman was walking towards the van to investigate it, three mortar shells were launched from a Mark 10 homemade mortar, followed by the explosion of a pre-set incendiary device. This device was designed to destroy any forensic evidence and set the van on fire. Each shell was four feet six inches (1.4 m) long, weighed 140 pounds (60 kg), and carried a 40-pound (20 kg) payload of the plastic explosive Semtex.
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