IRA 'transporting members to riots' claims group

A loyalist research group linked to the Ulster Defence Association has accused the IRA of transporting its members to interface areas throughout Belfast to participate in sectarian clashes.

Members of the Ulster Political Research Group told a press conference today that members of the IRA’s third battalion were being bussed around the city during recent riots.

UPRG spokesman Frankie Gallagher said: "We believe the people who are carrying out the violence in north Belfast and east Belfast and to a degree in the Markets area in south Belfast are part of the third battalion of the IRA.

"They are controlled and manoeuvred, bussed around by leading members of the republican movement and mainly ex-prisoners of the Provisional IRA."