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EDITIONS
Monday, 12 August, 2002, 18:17 GMT 19:17 UK
Pipe bombers target houses
One device went off at pensioners' bungalows
One device went off at pensioners' bungalows
Two pipe bombs have exploded in a nationalist area of east Belfast.

One device went off at pensioners' bungalows in Strand Walk at about 2300 BST on Sunday.

Another device found in Strand Walk was defused by Army bomb experts.

A pipe bomb also exploded in the garden of a house in Clandeboye Drive a short time later.

No-one was injured in the attacks which followed another weekend of violence in the area.

Sir Reg Empey
Sir Reg Empey met senior police officers

Sinn Fein councillor Joe O'Donnell said such attacks were a continuing occurrence.

Speaking on Monday, he said: "The houses along Strand Walk are now completely destroyed.

"There is a row of houses which, as I say, have been bombed three or four times in the last six months and are totally uninhabitable."

Meanwhile, Ulster Unionist Sir Reg Empey has called for a review of security in east Belfast.

Thirteen police officers were injured after trouble flared in the Short Strand area on Saturday night.

The police said they were satisfied that nationalists were responsible for a "sustained and orchestrated" attack.

Sinn Fein blamed bandsmen returning from the Apprentice Boys parade in Londonderry for causing the disturbances.

Sir Reg, who is an assembly representative for the area, met senior police officers on Sunday to raise his concerns.

Policy concerns

He said the policy of having a permanent security presence on the loyalist side of the peace wall and only intermittent security on the nationalist side was wrong.

"What I want to see is the presence of the security forces in such a way that the trouble does not start," he said.

"It is the prevention of it that I am focusing on."

"Inevitably, it is the ordinary rank and file officer that takes the hammering from whichever side attacks them and that's been going on throughout this city all summer."

Meanwhile in south Belfast, the Army carried out a controlled explosion on a pipe bomb device found outside a house on Walmer Street, off the Ormeau Road.

The front door was damaged in the attack on Sunday night. There were no injuries.

 WATCH/LISTEN
 ON THIS STORY
BBC NI's Gordon Adair reports
"A second device then exploded in Clandeboye Drive"
BBC NI's Julia Paul:
"Sinn Fein councillor Joe O'Donnell said such attacks were a continuing occurrence"
See also:

11 Aug 02 | N Ireland
08 Aug 02 | N Ireland
05 Jun 02 | N Ireland
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