Reply #29: Correct. IRA tries to avoid civilian casualties.

[murdoch]

The IRA (Provos) a few years ago blew the hell out of Canary Wharf, which is kind of the equivalent of the US financial district. The damage was quite extensive if one saw the pictures. The difference between them and Al Qaeda is they did it in the middle of the night - and called the police ahead of time - enough time to clear people out, but not enough to defuse the bomb. Unfortunately two people were killed. But the Irish Republican Army attempted to minimize civilian casualties, in the same way that the US Army attempts to minimize civilian casualties. When the IRA is trying to kill someone, they go after people like Mountbatten, Thatcher, John Major or military targets, sometimes succeeding, sometimes not. The IRA cares what people in the west think of them just as the US army does.