A ``human bomb'' attack, similar to last month's IRA bombing which killed seven people, failed when the enormous bomb fizzled, police said Friday. No one immediately claimed responsibility for Thursday night's failed attack but a spokesman for the Royal Ulster Constabular said the Irish Republican Army was suspected. The RUC spokesman said armed, masked men kidnapped a man from his home near Newtown Butler and ordered him to drive a truck containing a 3,500-pound bomb to an army checkpoint at Annaghmartin. The gang tied up the man's elderly parents and locked them in a bathroom while the man was driven near the checkpoint, 56 miles southwest of Belfast. The man was told to deliver the bomb, which they said had a five-minute timer, police said. The man drove the red pickup to the checkpoint, jumped out and shouted a warning. A short time later there was a small explosion, which was believed to have been caused by the detonator going off, police said. Army bomb experts defused the bomb, one of the largest ever found in Northern Ireland, police said. The army said there was only minimal damage and no one was injured. On Oct. 24, the IRA staged three human bomb attacks which killed six soldiers and a civilian, who drove one of the bombs to the army targets. The IRA is fighting British rule in Northern Ireland. It wants to unite the predominantly Protestant province with the 95 percent Catholic Republic of Ireland, under socialist rule.
