There were no incidents of international terrorism in the United Kingdom in 1991. Sectarian violence in Northern Ireland increased, however, though still short of levels seen in the 1970s. The Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) again extended its terrorist campaign to the British mainland but was largely quiescent on the European continent. Loyalist or Unionist paramilitary commandos in Northern Ireland significantly increased their attacks against Catholics in Ulster and mounted several terrorist operations in Ireland.

In 1991, 94 people lost their lives in the sectarian "troubles" in Northern Ireland, as compared with 76 in 1990 and some 60 in 1989. The increase is attributable to attacks by Protestant Loyalists who doubled the number of their victims in 1991. The Loyalists observed a cease-fire during the so-called Strand talks aimed at achieving some accommodation between the Protestant and Catholic communities in Northern Ireland, but they sharply increased their attacks when those talks broke down in July.

Outside Northern Ireland, PIRA mounted several attacks in England, including a mortar attack there that nearly hit a Cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street in February. Two powerful bombs were aimed at military band concerts near London but resulted in the deaths of two PIRA bomb handlers instead. One civilian, however, was killed by a PIRA bomb on a London subway train in February. He was PIRA's only fatal victim outside Ulster in 1991, as compared with six killings by PIRA outside Ulster in 1990. Loyalist terrorists from Ulster were responsible for more than a dozen firebombings in Dublin in 1991 and killed a pro-PIRA Sinn Fein counselor in Ireland in May. Throughout the year, but particularly in December, PIRA planted scores of incendiary devices in commercial establishments and subway trains in London and other English cities--and threatened other assaults--in a campaign to cause damage and economic disruption during the busy pre-Christmas shopping period.

Convictions brought in 1976 in English courts against seven members of the Maguire family for a PIRA bombing campaign were overturned in June owing to serious procedural errors. In March, the Birmingham Six, also PIRA suspects, were released from prison, as had been the Guilford Four in October 1990. The Home Secretary appointed a royal commission to review the legal system in light of these false imprisonment. PIRA member Desmond Ellis, extradited from Ireland in 1990 to stand trial for a 1981 PIRA bombing campaign in Britain, was acquitted of all charges.

John McCarthy, Jackie Mann, and Terry Waite, held hostage in Lebanon, were released in 1991. For the most part, author Salman Rushdie remained in hiding in Britain, however, as Iran's death threats against him continued in force. Rushdie did travel to New York City in December to deliver a speech at Columbia University; this was his first international travel since the death threats were made in 1989.

At the start of the Persian Gulf war, Britain detained about 90 Iraqis and Palestinians as a security precaution, deporting many of them.

On 14 November the Lord Advocate of Scotland brought formal charges against two Libyan intelligence officers, Abdel Basset Ali Al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah, for the bombing in 1988 of Pan American Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Britain, along with the United States, formally demanded their surrender by Libya.

Source: United States Department of State, April 1992.