:. Assassination bids mark regrouping of Real IRA

DUBLIN, November 18: The Real IRA’s attempts to assassinate two Northern Ireland police officers over the past week mark the organisation’s re-emergence as a serious threat to policing and stability in Northern Ireland and herald the beginning of a new series of attacks, according to dissident Irish republican sources.

The organisation is said to have trained new assassination units to target more police officers, aimed not only at dissuading Catholics from joining the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) but also at embarrassing Sinn Fein, a veteran dissident republican from Derry City said.

A PSNI constable is recovering after being shot in the arm and shoulder outside a police station in Dungannon on November 12.

The shooting came hours before Sinn Fein took its seats on the local district police partnership board - yet another sign of the party’s growing acceptance of new policing structures.

It happened five days after Real IRA gunmen tried to kill another off-duty officer in Derry.

Jim Doherty, a Catholic officer from the republican Bogside area, was shot and wounded while dropping his son off at school last Thursday.

One republican veteran who, although not a member of the Real IRA, has extensive knowledge of dissident movements, said the organisation had regrouped in recent months.

“They (the Real IRA) have trained up a couple of teams and now two of them have been ‘blooded’ in the attacks in Derry and now Dungannon.

“In Derry the ‘Reals’ have grown particularly strong with a combination of ex-Provos (Provisional IRA) and new young recruits who have been trained up. And they have a bit of a support base up there.”

The dissident source pointed to the several thousand votes that anti-Good Friday (peace) agreement republican candidate Peggy O’Hara received in this year’s assembly elections as evidence there was a small but growing republican dissident base.

“This has nothing to do at all with Peggy but the number of republican activists who voted for her should indicate that there is enough people in Derry willing to help out those carrying on the ‘armed struggle’. For them the PSNI is just another British police force serving the occupying power.”

The source said one of the goals of targeting PSNI officers was to force Sinn Fein into issuing condemnations of such attacks.

“It’s a form of ‘armed propaganda’ that the IRA used to use so well. If Sinn Fein come out and condemn the attacks on the cops the dissidents can say to republican youth, who will never accept the cops, ‘Look, they’re just like the SDLP now, they condemn others for what they used to do’.”

It is estimated that in Derry - the dissidents’ strongest area - there are only a couple of dozen activists involved in the Real IRA. In Belfast there are far fewer as republican areas remain staunchly loyal to Sinn Fein leaders Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness.

According to senior security sources, there are also activists in County Tyrone, the scene of the latest attack.

The PSNI, the security services and the Garda Siochana (police) in the Irish Republic have been warned about an upsurge in Real IRA activity. They have also been told that the Real IRA has shifted its focus back from “long-range attacks” towards assassinating members of the security forces.

Sir Hugh Orde, the PSNI chief constable, described the dissidents as “the most significant threat to policing”. Over the past few years the Real IRA has been in disarray following arrests and counter- terrorist operations, mostly in the Irish Republic.
A measure of the Garda’s success is that there are more Real and Continuity IRA prisoners in the maximum-security prison at Portlaoise than there were Provisional IRA inmates when the latter were released early under the 1998 Good Friday agreement.

In a statement released before the murder attempt in Dungannon, the Real IRA said it had failed to kill the officer in Derry because a handgun failed to fire. But for it jamming, he could have become the PSNI’s first victim of terrorism. “He might not be so lucky next time,” the group said.