[size=4]British bomb expert sees Palestinian-IRA link[/size=4]
By Douglas Davis

LONDON - A former British explosives expert now working for the Red Cross in the Jenin refugee camp has found 200 explosive devices that are identical to those used by the IRA in Northern Ireland, according to a report in The Sunday Telegraph yesterday.

Former Royal Engineers bomb-disposal expert Paul Collinson told the London-based paper that the devices he had found were identical in every detail to those he had encountered in Northern Ireland.

He is convinced that the devices were either supplied by the IRA or made by Palestinians under direct IRA supervision: "When I saw the bombs it was like a flashback to Northern Ireland," he told the paper.

"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," Collinson said.

Collinson also said the booby-trap bombs used in Jenin and Northern Ireland were made from the same ingredients - nitrogen-based fertilizer, diesel, and sugar - and he believes that tactics used by Palestinians in the battle for Jenin reflect those of IRA attacks on British soldiers.

"The bombs were placed in alleyways and in houses," he said.

"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."

[b]Collinson, who has worked as an explosives expert in the Palestinian territories over the past two years, as well as in Egypt, Colombia, Afghanistan, and other countries since leaving Northern Ireland, said he had he seen replicas of the IRA bombs in no place other than Jenin.[/b]

Israel raised concerns about links between the IRA and Palestinian groups last month when the Mossad told British intelligence it believed the killing of seven soldiers and three civilians in Ofra by a sniper using a bolt-action rifle bore the hallmarks of an IRA operation.

[b]When the sniper fled - after firing 25 shots in 25 minutes - he left behind his weapon, a trademark IRA practice.[/b]

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Eric The(Suspicious)Hun[>]:)]