Bomb attack on ex-policeman in Northern Ireland fails

BELFAST (Reuters) - A Northern Irish former policeman escaped injury on Tuesday when a booby trap bomb planted under his car partially exploded, the third such attack in a week in the province.

The man walked away from his car uninjured after the device partially detonated as he drove away from his home in Cookstown, County Tyrone, to the town's police station, where he now works as a civilian security guard.

More than 100 residents in the area were evacuated from their homes while an army bomb disposal team examined the bomb.

A 1998 peace agreement largely ended three decades of violence between predominantly Catholic groups who want a united Ireland and mainly Protestant unionists who want Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom.

But militant splinter groups have stepped up attacks recently. The attacks are often aimed at police.

Security forces in Northern Ireland defused a bomb which fell off a policewoman's car on Saturday as well as booby trap bomb planted under a soldier's car on Wednesday. Last week, nationalist militants exploded a car bomb outside a police station in Londonderry.

The nationalist Sinn Fein party has said it was seeking talks with the political representatives of dissident groups -- the Real IRA and Continuity IRA -- following the recent attacks.

But so far the small groups have shown little sign they are ready for discussions.

(Reporting by Ian Graham, Writing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Editing by Charles Dick)