Other than attacks in Northern Ireland & mainland Britain the Provisional IRA also carried out attacks in other countries such as West Germany , Belgium , and the Netherlands , where British soldiers were based . Between 1979 and 1990 , eight unarmed soldiers and six civilians died in these attacks . It was the first IRA attack in West Germany since a British Army officer , Colonel Mark Coe , was shot dead by an IRA unit outside his home in , Bielefeld in February 1980 . Coe 's assassination was one of the first high-profile killings by the IRA in Germany and on mainland Europe . A year before , British Ambassador to the Netherlands Sir Richard Sykes was assassinated , whilst four British soldiers were hurt in the 1979 Brussels bombing in Belgium , just one day after the killing of Lord Mountbatten and the Warrenpoint ambush , which killed 18 British soldiers . In November 1981 the Irish National Liberation Army ( INLA ) bombed a British Army base in Herford , West Germany . There were no injuries in the attack . There was also a mortar attack on British Army base in Germany in 1996
1979 Brussels bombing
1979 Brussels bombing
1987 Rheindahlen bombing