The World : IRA Violence Hits 14 Towns

Supporters of the outlawed Irish Republican Army hurled rocks, gasoline bombs and homemade grenades at police in 14 towns of British-ruled Northern Ireland in the province’s worst outbreak of rioting this year, authorities said. A Protestant man was beaten to death near a Roman Catholic area. Roman Catholic youths stoned the farmhouse of a 72-year-old blind Protestant woman and set two barns on fire, police said. In all, at least nine people were injured--five of them police officers wounded by a homemade grenade--and about 20 youths were arrested. The violence marked the 16th anniversary of a British crackdown on the IRA.