20 September 2000 (23 years ago) (2000-09-20) 21:45 (BST)
Target
SIS Building
Attack type
Anti-tank rocket
Weapons
Russian-built RPG-22
Deaths
0
Injured
0
Perpetrators
Real IRA
v
t
e
Dissident Irish republican campaign
1998 Banbridge bombing
Omagh bombing
2000 MI6 attack
2001 BBC bombing
2001 Ealing bombing
2001 Birmingham bombing
2006 Dublin riots
Massereene Barracks shooting
Murder of Stephen Carroll
2010 Newry car bombing
Palace Barracks bombing
Murder of Ronan Kerr
Murder of David Black
Bishop Street Courthouse bombing
Murder of Lyra McKee
Shooting of John Caldwell
v
t
e
The Troubles in Ireland
1960s and 1970s
Battle of the Bogside/1969 riots
RTÉ bombing
Battle of St Matthew's
Falls Curfew
Crossmaglen bombing
Scottish soldiers' killings
Operation Demetrius
Ballymurphy massacre
Newry killings
Red Lion Pub bombing
McGurk's Bar bombing
Balmoral showroom bombing
Bloody Sunday
Abercorn Restaurant bombing
Donegall St bombing
Battle at Springmartin
Dungiven ambush
Battle of Lenadoon
Springhill massacre
Bloody Friday
Operation Motorman
Claudy bombing
Newry customs bombing
Benny's Bar bombing
Annie's Bar massacre
Belturbet bombing
Dublin bombings
New Lodge Six shooting
Coleraine bombings
Rose & Crown Bar bombing
Clogher barracks attack
Dublin & Monaghan bombings
Mountainview Tavern attack
Bleary Darts Club shooting
Strand Bar bombing
Forkhill beer keg bomb
Miami Showband killings
Bayardo Bar attack
Tullyvallen massacre
October 1975 attacks
Drummuckavall ambush
Dublin Airport bombing
Dundalk & Silverbridge attacks
Central Bar bombing
Reavey and O'Dowd killings
Kingsmill massacre
Castleblayney bombing
Hillcrest Bar bombing
Flagstaff Hill incident
Charlemont pub attacks
Store Bar shooting
Chlorane Bar attack
Ramble Inn attack
Stag Inn attack
Andersonstown incident
Garryhinch ambush
Jonesborough Gazelle shootdown
La Mon restaurant bombing
Warrenpoint ambush
Dungannon land mine attack
1980s
Dunmurry train bombing
Lough Foyle attacks
Altnaveigh landmine attack
Glasdrumman ambush
Divis Flats bombing
Droppin Well bombing
Ballygawley land mine attack
Darkley killings
Kesh ambush
Strabane ambush
Newry mortar attack
Ballygawley barracks attack
Birches barracks attack
Clontibret invasion
Loughgall ambush
Remembrance Day bombing
Milltown Cemetery attack
Corporals killings
Avenue Bar shooting
Lisburn van bombing
Aughanduff Lynx shootdown
Ballygawley bus bombing
Drumnakilly ambush
Jonesborough ambush
Derryard checkpoint attack
1990s
Derrygorry Gazelle shootdown
Downpatrick landmine attack
Operation Conservation
Armagh City roadside bombing
Fort Victoria
Proxy bombings
Lough Neagh ambush
Silverbridge Lynx shootdown
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Craigavon mobile shop killings
Glenanne barracks bombing
Coagh ambush
Musgrave Park Hospital bombing
Craigavon Hyster killings
Teebane bombing
Sinn Féin Headquarters shooting
Sean Graham bookmakers' shooting
Clonoe ambush
Cloghoge checkpoint attack
Coalisland riots
South Armagh sniper campaign
Forensic Lab bombing
James Murray's bookmakers attack
Castlerock killings
Cullaville occupation
Battle of Newry Road
Shankill Road bombing
Greysteel massacre
Fivemiletown ambush
Crossmaglen Lynx shootdown
1994 Shankill Road killings
Loughinisland massacre
Killeeshil ambush
Drumcree conflict
Thiepval barracks bombing
Coalisland attack
1997 riots
Quinn brothers' killings
Banbridge bombing
Omagh bombing
See also: The Troubles in Britain & Europe, Assassinations during the Troubles, and Loyalist feud
On Wednesday 20 September 2000, the Real Irish Republican Army (RIRA) carried out an attack on MI6's SIS Building headquarters in Vauxhall, Lambeth, London. A Russian-built RPG-22 anti-tank rocket, fired 300 metres (330 yards) away from MI6 headquarters, struck the building on the south side of the eighth floor, causing superficial damage. No fatalities or injuries were recorded.[1]
Although London had been the target of terrorist attacks before 2000, it had not been subjected to a rocket launcher attack; this was the first time a RPG-22 rocket launcher was seen and used in Great Britain. It was initially thought the Real IRA acquired the launchers from the Provisional IRA's arsenal, but later confirmed it was brought from Yugoslavia.[2] The "audacious" attack caused minimal damage due to the building's bullet-proof and bomb-proof structure, failing to penetrate the inner cladding.[3]
At the time of the attack, the constituency of South Antrim was preparing for a by-election to be held the following day; it was won by Democratic Unionist William McCrea, who defeated Ulster Unionist David Burnside.
^"Attack on MI6 Snarls Central London : Missile Hits the Home Of British Intelligence". The New York Times. 22 September 2000. Retrieved 18 September 2020.
^Cite error: The named reference independentmi6 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference telegraph was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
On Wednesday 20 September 2000, the Real Irish Republican Army (RIRA) carried out an attack on MI6's SIS Building headquarters in Vauxhall, Lambeth, London...
Building, also called the MI6 Building, at Vauxhall Cross houses the headquarters of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, MI6), the United Kingdom's foreign...
The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 (Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom...
said "the loss of a journalist at any time in any part of the world is an attack on truth itself." U.S. House of Representatives Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, who...
at the time of the incidents, was given sixteen years' detention. 2000MI6attack Timeline of the Troubles List of terrorist incidents in London Colombia...
pageant. 20 September 2000: 2000MI6attack: The SIS Building (commonly known as MI6 headquarters) in Vauxhall, Lambeth was attacked using a Russian-made...
business, though both of them strongly denied having anything to do with the attack in Omagh (in June 2009, McKevitt was one of four men found by a civil court...
Harnden (2000). Bandit Country:The IRA and South Armagh. London: Coronet Books. pp. 358–359. ISBN 978-0-340-71737-0. "Soldiers hurt in IRA attack on helicopter"...
to the Real IRA stronghold of Dundalk in the Republic of Ireland. 2000MI6attack 2001 Ealing bombing 2001 BBC bombing Birmingham pub bombings 2007 London...
that the families believe is part of the RIRA. In April 2000, the group argued that the attack breached Article 57 of the Geneva Convention and stated...
Building, headquarters of the Secret Intelligence Service, also known as the MI6. In February 2001 a British Army cadet lost a hand when a booby-trap bomb...
hour before the blast.: 138 One man died of a heart attack, although an autopsy found his heart attack had begun before the Old Bailey blast.: 143 She and...
statements made by Dick Ellis, a British-Australian intelligence officer for MI6 who helped William J. Donovan set up the Office of Strategic Services. Ellis...
News. 19 July 2000. Retrieved 5 May 2007. "Security tight in London in wake of MI6attack". Raidió Teilifís Éireann. 21 September 2000. Retrieved 3 May...
linked to NI blast". BBC. 9 July 2000. Retrieved 28 June 2007. "Bomb attack on police station". BBC News. 13 September 2000. Mooney & O'Toole, pp. 347-348...
Ireland and by 94% in the Republic of Ireland. It was reported in February 2000 that the group established a "branch" in Kilburn, London. In November 2005...
soldiers and two civilian delivery men were also shot and wounded during the attack. A dissident Irish republican paramilitary group, the Real IRA, claimed...
RAAD members attacked a PSNI vehicle in Derry with a blast bomb. This was the first time it had attacked security forces, claiming the attack was "a direct...
senior intelligence officer. He was Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) from 2004 to 2009. Prior to this appointment, he had chaired the Joint Intelligence...
and ordered by a Belfast court to pay £1.5 million to the victims of the attack. All four men refused. On 10 April 2014, arising out of the police investigation...
of an illegal organisation, the Real Irish Republican Army. On 10 October 2000, the BBC television show Panorama named Murphy as one of four people connected...
Real IRA) and "directing terrorism" between 29 August 1999 and 23 October 2000. On 7 August 2003 he was sentenced to twenty years in prison. During his...
The 2001 BBC bombing was a terrorist attack on the BBC's main news centre within BBC Television Centre, on Wood Lane in the White City area of West London...
Ó Snodaigh, "IRA Convention meets", An Phoblacht/Republican News, 11 May 2000. Maryann Gialanella V, Portrait of a Revolutionary. General Richard Mulcahy...
House, 25/05/1921. Shot outside the building in Beresford Place while attacking an approaching tender full of Auxiliaries. Eamonn Duggan Stephen Fuller...
sourced from UR were used by loyalist Michael Stone in the Milltown Cemetery attack. In the 1990s Willie Frazer, a "key figure" in the organisation, distributed...
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