By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal
LONDON (AA) – Victims of the Omagh bombing were remembered at a special ceremony on Wednesday marking 20 years to the deadly incident.
A memorial bell tolled and a two-minute silence was observed in Omagh, Northern Ireland, to commemorate the 29 victims, including a mother pregnant with twins.
People threw petals in the water at the Omagh Memorial Garden to pay tribute to the victims.
The attack on Aug. 15, 1998 was claimed by the Real IRA — a splinter group of the Irish Republican Army.
The bombing, which also injured more than 200 people in Market Street, is the single deadliest incident of the Troubles — an era of conflicts in the country from the 1960s to 1998 between Protestant loyalists and Catholic nationalists.
Nine children also perished in the attack.
An unclear warning call to police shortly before the explosion caused security services to move the crowds closer to the explosion point causing a dramatic increase in the casualties, according to some reports released over the years.
The Omagh bombing came shortly after a peace deal — dubbed the Good Friday agreement — marked the end of Troubles-era violence in which more than 3,500 people lost their lives.
