London bombing claimed by IRA hints of new drive

Police fear Irish nationalist guerrillas could be mounting a fresh bombing campaign in London after the chief of Britain's Royal Marines lost a leg in a car bomb blast.

The Irish Republican Army, battling British rule in Northern Ireland, claimed responsibility for the Saturday attack, which occurred exactly a week after an IRA bomb attack on a busload of soldiers in west London killed two passers-by and injured 40 others.

The latest bomb, which critically injured Lt. Gen. Sir Steuart Pringle, may have been in revenge for an unprecedented swoop by marines on the funeral of a guerrilla hunger striker in Northern Ireland in July, police report.