British military personnel had been stationed in West Germany since the end of the Second World War . The Provisional IRA had been carrying out attacks in mainland Europe since 1979 . Between 1988 and 1990 it intensified its operations there . On 1 May 1988 , three members of the Royal Air Force ( RAF ) were killed in two IRA attacks in the Netherlands . One of the attacks took place in Roermond . On 12 August , Richard Michael Heakin , a British sergeant-major was shot dead at Ostend , Belgium . In June 1989 , a British base in Osnabrück was bombed and the following month a British soldier was killed by an IRA booby trap bomb in Hanover
two IRA attacks in the Netherlands
1988 IRA attacks in the Netherlands
Killings of Nick Spanos and Stephen Melrose