A Northern Ireland bus driver was commanded by suspected IRA militants to deliver a bomb to a police station, but instead she parked her vehicle and called police, authorities who praised the driver's bravery said Thursday. 
 
 No group claimed responsibility for the failed attack in Londonderry on Wednesday night, but police and politicians blamed IRA militants, who are particularly active in the predominantly Irish Catholic city with pockets of high unemployment where the extremists are based. 
 
 The episode illustrated the relative weakness of today's IRA die-hards, who continue to mount occasional bomb and gun attacks in defiance of Northern Ireland's 1998 peace accord. 
 
 Leaders of the Catholic-Protestant government in Northern Ireland praised the unidentified driver for refusing to deliver the bomb as instructed after police said they recovered a viable bomb on board the bus. About 70 nearby homes were evacuated overnight. 
 
 Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, the former IRA commander in Londonderry who today helps lead Northern Ireland's unity government, in a tweet praised "the courage of the bus driver who last night prevented a bomb attack on the peace process in Derry." 
 
 Translink, which operates Northern Ireland buses, says two masked men dropped a bag containing the bomb on the woman's bus and ordered her to drive it to the police headquarters in Londonderry. IRA members have repeatedly targeted the fortified building. 
 
 The driver told the militants she would, but parked the bus at a stop and called police. 
 
 The episode illustrates the limits of today's small IRA splinter groups. The dominant faction, the Provisional IRA, killed nearly 1,800 people before calling a 1997 cease-fire and renouncing violence in 2005. Breakaway factions have killed a half-dozen people, but most of their attacks fail either because bombs are badly designed or police surveillance thwarts the attack. 
 
 The Provisional IRA pioneered the use of civilian drivers to deliver bombs in 1973, adopting the tactic to avoid the risk of their own members being arrested. 
 
 The Provisionals ruthlessly enforced the threats by taking the driver's family hostage and threatening to kill them if the driver stopped short of the target. Sometimes the Provisionals also followed the victimized driver in a second car and warned they would detonate the bomb, killing the driver, if they tried to raise an alarm. In 1990 the Provisionals killed one driver, a Catholic chef, as he arrived at his British Army workplace in Londonderry. 
 
 By contrast, recent IRA attempts to force civilians to deliver bombs all have failed, with the drivers stopping short of the target and raising an alarm. ||||| Dissident republicans have been blamed for planting a bomb on a bus in Northern Ireland. 
 
 Police said a masked man ordered the viable explosive device to be transported to the main police station in Derry last night. 
 
 Superintendent Stephen Cargin said it was capable of causing death or serious injury. 
 
 The alert began at about 6.15pm yesterday when the masked man boarded the bus in the Ballymagroarty area. 
 
 The bomb, which was concealed inside a holdall and had a two-hour timer, was placed directly behind the driver's seat. 
 
 There were up to ten passengers on board at the time and they were ordered off. 
 
 The driver was able to abandon the bus in a place of safety in the Northlands area and raise the alarm. 
 
 She has been left extremely distressed by the ordeal. 
 
 Supt Cargin said she should be praised for her bravery. 
 
 He said: "To be prepared to put a bomb on a public bus, to put the lives of the driver and the passengers at risk and in the knowledge that it had to be driven through a built up area is totally mindless." 
 
 The suspect was dressed in a black jacket and used a black scarf and hood to hide his identity. 
 
 Supt Cargin said he claimed to have been from the IRA. 
 
 "We believe this was one of the dissident groups," he said. 
 
 In the past, dissidents have forced taxi drivers to transport bombs but it is understood this is the first time a public transport worker has been targeted. 
 
 Ciaran Rogan from Translink, which operates the network, insisted services would not be impacted. 
 
 Stormont Transport Minister Danny Kennedy condemned those responsible. 
 
 He said: "Attacks on public transport impact the entire community who depend on buses and trains to get to work, school, hospital and go about their daily business." 
 
 About 70 families from 40 houses were evacuated while army bomb disposal teams worked to make the device safe. 
 
 The alert ended at about 3.30am and residents were allowed to return home. 
 
 Strand Road PSNI station has been the target of a number of bomb bids including thwarted mortar attacks in March and October. ||||| A bus driver has been labelled a "selfless heroine" after risking her life to stop a bomb placed on her vehicle exploding outside Derry's main police station. 
 
 She managed to evacuate up to 10 passengers on the service, which was bound for the city centre, on Wednesday night and then drove the bus alone with a bomb on board for almost a mile to a less built-up area. 
 
 She had defied a masked man who said he was from the new IRA terror group when he boarded the bus at about 6.15pm on Wednesday. He had ordered her to drive the bus with an explosive device on board to Strand Road police station – the target of repeat bomb attacks by republican dissidents. 
 
 It emerged on Thursday that instead of taking the bomb along a three-mile journey into central Derry the driver found the nearest bus stop in a less built-up area. She then got off the bus and telephoned police. 
 
 Her actions were hailed on Thursday as the work of a "heroine" by local politicians, who condemned the republican terrorist group's actions. SDLP councillor John Boyle said: "This selfless heroine put the lives of her passengers and people living around ahead of herself." 
 
 He added: "Up to 10 passengers were traumatised by this incident and up to 40 families had to spend several hours out of their homes on a brutally cold evening. But thanks to this courageous woman there was no loss of life or injuries." 
 
 Army bomb disposal experts were called in to deal with what the Police Service of Northern Ireland later said was a "viable device". 
 
 Northern Ireland's transport minister, Danny Kennedy, said: "I want to praise the bravery of the bus driver who had to deal with this frightening situation." 
 
 The Ulster Unionist member added: "Attacks on public transport impact the entire community who depend on buses and trains to get to work, school, hospital and go about their daily business. The driver showed immense courage under very difficult circumstances." 
 
 Sinn Féin councillor Eric McGinley said those responsible for leaving the bomb on the bus "are going against the will of the vast majority of the people in this area who have indicated that they want to move forward without this type of disruption". 
 
 Security alerts involving improvised explosive devices have become almost a weekly occurence in Derry during the past few months as dissident republicans step up their armed actions in the city. So far, however, no one has been killed or badly injured in any of the attacks. 
 
 The use of a potential proxy to drive a bomb to a security force base will bring back memories in Derry of the 1990 murder of Catholic contractor Patsy Gillespie. He died in an explosion that also killed five British soldiers. He had been strapped into a van packed with explosives and was forced to drive the vehicle towards an army vehicle checkpoint while his family were held at gunpoint back in their Derry home. 
 
 The use of a so-called human bomb along with two other similar attacks on the same day provoked widespread condemnation throughout Ireland and beyond.
– A bus driver in Northern Ireland is winning a hero's praise for keeping cool and defying orders to drive a timed bomb to a police station, reports the Guardian and RTE. The scene unfolded last night, when either one or two men (accounts differ) boarded the bus, placed the bomb behind the driver's seat, and ordered her to drive to the police station in downtown Londonderry. The men didn't remain on the bus, however, so the driver evacuated her 10 or so passengers, then drove with the bomb alone for about a mile to a less populated area and called police. "The driver showed immense courage under very difficult circumstances," says the regional transportation chief, while a local politician praised her as a "selfless heroine." Police were able to deactivate the device before it exploded, describing it as small but viable, reports the BBC. Though no group has claimed responsibility, the AP says IRA splinter groups unhappy with the 1998 peace accord continue to wage occasional attacks. And it adds that the use of civilian drivers to deliver bombs is a tactic that dates back to the 1970s in the region. (Another recent hero: the Detroit teen who used a piece of wood to knock his friend off a live wire.)