Car bomb hurts Belfast police officer's partner

By Anne Cadwallader

BELFAST (Reuters) - A car bomb injured a Northern Irish police officer's partner on Friday in an incident that highlighted the danger of dissident Republican militants unsettling the province's fragile political balance.

The attack will test Belfast authorities' ability to control security at a time when Republican and pro-British partners in Northern Ireland's power-sharing executive are at odds over the issue of devolving policing and justice powers from London.

Police said a device was placed on or below the victim's car which was parked just hundreds of yards (metres) from police headquarters. A 38-year-old woman suffered minor injuries and was taken to hospital before being released.

"Had the person been sitting on the passenger side of the car, we'd probably be talking about a fatality here today," Chief Superintendent Brian Maguire told reporters.

Maguire said the woman was thought to have no direct connection to the police service. The Northern Ireland Policing Board said the victim was a serving officer's partner.

A 1998 peace agreement mostly ended decades of fighting known as "The Troubles" that killed 3,600 people in Northern Ireland. Predominantly Catholic Republicans fought for a union with the Republic of Ireland while mostly Protestant Unionists battled to remain part of the United Kingdom.

But sporadic violence occurs, with dissident Republican groups killing two British soldiers and a police officer in March.

Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, a former Irish Republican Army (IRA) commander, condemned those killings and said Friday's attack would not succeed in derailing the peace process.