The bombing was part of the IRA's European continental campaign against British targets in its fight to force the British out of Northern Ireland, in a protracted armed conflict known as the Troubles. The attack in Brussels was one of numerous ones from the IRA on the continent at the time. Earlier that year, Richard Sykes, British ambassador to the Netherlands was assassinated in Amsterdam. A Brussels explosion on 25 June, narrowly missing American Alexander Haig, was intended for a British general. A bomb attack in Antwerp targeted the British consulate building on 6 July 1979.[1]
The band, from the Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment based in Osnabrück, West Germany, was about to perform a concert as the bomb was planted underneath the open-air stage. Only some of the band's 30 members had already arrived, as the others were lucky enough to have been stuck in city traffic.[4] Also, injuries were lessened and fatalities avoided since the band's members were dressing, away from the stage, at the time of the explosion.[5]
The bombing happened while the city was celebrating its thousandth anniversary.[5][6]
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