LONDON, May 17: Syrian secret agents were involved in the Irish Republican Army's assassination of Lord Mountbatten in 1979, one of the IRA's most spectacular attacks, the Sunday Times reported.The paper said Syrian military intelligence "rewarded" the paramilitary group with two million pounds for the murder and other actions. The Sunday Times said its sources for the information was a former IRA activist, Sean O'Callaghan, who turned informer and now lives under British Police protection.
The paper said details of the attack on Mountbatten, who died when his boat was blown up off the Irish coast, would be revealed in O'Callaghan's autobiography to be published later this month.
Mountbatten was a cousin of Queen Elizabeth II and the last Viceroy of India.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
