Osnabrück mortar attack The Osnabrück mortar attack was an improvised mortar attack carried out by a Provisional Irish Republican Army ( IRA ) unit based in mainland Europe on 28 June 1996 against the British Army ' s Quebec Barracks at Osnabrück , Germany . Background . The main sides of The Troubles , in particular the British Government and the IRA , had accepted by the early 1990s that they couldn ' t resolve the conflict by force . The IRA , through its political wing , Sinn Féin , foresaw that greater progress towards republican objectives might be achieved by negotiation . In this context , the IRA declared a " permanent cessation " of hostilities on 31 August 1994 . The IRA eventually called off this ceasefire on 9 February 1996 because of its dissatisfaction with the lack of progress of the peace talks . They marked the end of the truce by detonating a truck bomb at Canary Wharf in London , which caused the deaths of two civilians and massive damage to property . In early June 1996 , another truck bomb devastated Manchester city centre . The Provisional IRA military activities of 1996 – 1997 were used to gain leverage in negotiations with the British government during the period . Whereas in 1994 – 95 , the British Conservative Party government had refused to enter public talks with Sinn Féin until the IRA had given up its weapons , the Labour Party government in power by 1997 was prepared to include Sinn Féin in peace talks before IRA decommissioning . This precondition was officially dropped in June 1997 . The attack . The attack was perpetrated at 18 : 50 , local time , when three Mark 15 mortar bombs were launched from a Ford Transit van . The devices contained more than 180 lb ( 81 . 64 kg ) of explosive in each projectile . The van had been modified by a former British Army engineer , Michael Dickson , who built the launch platform and aimed the tubes towards the barrracks . The tubes were screwed to the floor of the van and masked with tarpaulins . Two of the bombs fell short of the perimeter fence and failed to explode , but the third went off 20 yards ( 18 . 3 mt ) inside the base , leaving a crater near a petrol pump . No fire was ignited , but several buildings , cars and armoured vehicles were damaged by the blast . The destruction was described as ' substantial ' . There were 150 soldiers inside the facility at the time , but none were injured . An explosive charge was left in the vehicle with the intention of destroying forensic evidence , but the intact van ' s plates allowed it to be traced to Yorkshire . The IRA unit was composed of five members , two of them women , who had rented a holiday home in northern Germany where they built the mortar launchers . Michael Dickson later claimed at his trial that he had no experience in handling explosives during his career in the British Army ' s Royal Engineers . Dickson had served in several British bases in Germany , but never in Northern Ireland . Róisín McAliskey , daughter of republican activist Bernadette Devlin McAliskey , and Jimmy Corrie were also suspected of being members of the cell . The aim of the IRA was to establish a permanent presence in mainland Europe , rather than cause massive loss of life . Aftermath . John Major , then prime minister of the United Kingdom , said that the assault showed how the IRA and Sinn Féin were isolating themselves from the peace process . John Bruton , then Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland , dubbed the IRA strategy as ' utterly pointless ' . Michael Dickson was arrested in December 2002 on an international arrest warrant relating to the 1996 mortar attack whilst he was driving a lorry - load of contraband cigarettes and tobacco at Ruzyne Airport in the Czech Republic . He was convicted under German law to six and a half years for attempted murder and setting off an explosion . He served his sentence in Celle maximum security prison in Germany , and was released after serving 27 months of his sentence . Róisin McAliskey battled successfully against the extradition warrant issued by the German Justice .