IRA behind 50 attacks this year, says Orde

The IRA has carried out more than 50 punishment beatings and shootings in the last year, Northern Ireland Chief Constable Hugh Orde claimed today.

As Ulster Unionist Leader David Trimble prepared for talks with Prime Minister Tony Blair at Downing Street in a bid to have Sinn Féin ousted from a review of the Good Friday Agreement, Mr Orde confirmed the scale of violence involving the Provisionals.

Even though the Republican terrorist organisation is supposed to be on ceasefire, the chief constable told a policing board meeting in Belfast they were matching loyalists levels of brutality.

He said: “I have attributed over 50 punishment beatings and shootings to the UDA and I would probably put a similar number of these on the provisional IRA.”

Mr Orde’s assessment came amid continued unionist anger over the alleged abduction of dissident republican Bobby Tohill from a Belfast city centre bar.

The thwarted kidnapping was blamed on the Provos by Mr Orde and led to Mr Trimble leading his party out of the talks aimed at restoring devolved Government in Ulster when no sanctions were taken against Sinn Féin.

The chief constable stood by his verdict today and also hit out at the IRA gangs striking fear into their communities.

“Their victims are simply too terrified to co-operate with the police,” Mr Orde said.