Corleone

Since the late 1960s, the IRA has killed about 1,800 people, including about 650 civilians. The IRA?s primary targets were British troops, police officers, prison guards, and judges?many of them unarmed or off-duty?as well as rival paramilitary militants, drug dealers, and informers in Ulster. Major IRA terrorist attacks include:

* the July 1972 bombing spree known as Bloody Friday, in which downtown Belfast was rocked by 22 bombs in 75 minutes, leaving nine dead and 130 injured;

* the 1979 assassination of Lord Mountbatten, Queen Elizabeth II?s uncle;

* the 1984 bombing of a Brighton hotel where then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet were meeting, which wounded several British officials and killed four other Britons;

* a 1993 car bombing in London?s financial district that killed one person and caused $1 billion of damage;

* mortar attacks on the British prime minister?s 10 Downing Street residence and London?s Heathrow Airport in the early 1990s;

* and high-profile bombings of civilian targets, including pubs and subway stations, in Northern Ireland and mainland Britain throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.