Qualla: Downing Street mortar attack https://qualla.com/downing-street-mortar-attack en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:14 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/u/downing-street-mortar-attack-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Downing Street mortar attack https://qualla.com/downing-street-mortar-attack Downing Street mortar attack: Introduction https://qualla.com/downing-street-mortar-attack/ Photo credit Philafrenzy, CC BY-SA 4.0. It was 7 February 1991. Inside 10 Downing Street, Prime Minister John Major's war cabinet was meeting to discuss the Gulf War, which had been raging in Iraq and Kuwait for three weeks. Around the table sat the Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd, the Defence Secretary Tom King, Chancellor Norman Lamont, and the Chief of the Defence Staff David Craig, along with several other senior politicians and civil servants. About 200 yards away, on the Whitehall side of Horse Guards Avenue, a Provisional IRA member was parking a transit van. The roof of the van had been cut. Inside were three homemade mortar tubes pointed up into the London sky on a calculated angle. Less than a minute later, the gunman set the timer and walked away.

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Image: Philafrenzy | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/u/downing-street-mortar-attack-wp/gcpu-downing-street-mortar-attack-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Downing Street mortar attack: The Long Build-Up https://qualla.com/downing-street-mortar-attack/ Photo credit InSapphoWeTrust from Los Angeles, California, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0. The attack had been years in planning. Throughout the Troubles, the Provisional IRA used homemade mortars (known in the trade as "barrack busters") against police and army targets in Northern Ireland, most devastatingly in the 1985 Newry mortar attack, which killed nine officers ...

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Image: InSapphoWeTrust from Los Angeles, California, USA | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/u/downing-street-mortar-attack-wp/gcpu-downing-street-mortar-attack-the-long-build-up.mp3 0:06 2 full Downing Street mortar attack: Three Bombs in the Sky https://qualla.com/downing-street-mortar-attack/ Photo credit Simon Burchell, CC BY-SA 4.0. The mortar tubes fired one after another, each shell weighing 140 pounds. From a launching position 250 yards across Whitehall, with no direct line of sight to the back garden of Number 10, the IRA volunteer had estimated the angle by map. One former British soldier later describ...

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Image: Simon Burchell | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/u/downing-street-mortar-attack-wp/gcpu-downing-street-mortar-attack-three-bombs-in-the-sky.mp3 0:06 3 full Downing Street mortar attack: Under the Table https://qualla.com/downing-street-mortar-attack/ Photo credit Procolotor, CC BY-SA 3.0. Inside the Cabinet Office, every person in the room ducked under the table. The reinforced windows held. Nobody around the cabinet table was hurt. Four other people received minor injuries, including two Metropolitan Police officers stationed nearby. When the explosion's aftersho...

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Image: Procolotor | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/u/downing-street-mortar-attack-wp/gcpu-downing-street-mortar-attack-under-the-table.mp3 0:06 4 full Downing Street mortar attack: A Brilliant Shot, A Failed Assassination https://qualla.com/downing-street-mortar-attack/ Photo credit Mx. Granger, CC0. If the angle of fire had been five or ten degrees different, security analysts later said, the third shell would not have landed in the garden but inside the Cabinet Office itself, and the war cabinet would have been killed. The IRA had come painfully close to assassinating a Bri...

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Image: Mx. Granger | CC0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/u/downing-street-mortar-attack-wp/gcpu-downing-street-mortar-attack-a-brilliant-shot-a-failed-assassination.mp3 0:06 5 full Downing Street mortar attack: After the Smoke https://qualla.com/downing-street-mortar-attack/ Photo credit Lewis Clarke, CC BY-SA 2.0. John Major temporarily moved to Admiralty House while the bomb damage to Number 10's back wall and garden was repaired. The repairs were comparatively minor, mostly cosmetic. The political consequences were not. Within months, the Downing Street security regime had been transform...

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Image: Lewis Clarke | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/u/downing-street-mortar-attack-wp/gcpu-downing-street-mortar-attack-after-the-smoke.mp3 0:06 6 full