NI parties 'united' against dissidents

Dissident groups attacking the peace process are a threat to the public and must be faced down by politicians, Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness has said.

His comments came a day after his party president Gerry Adams warned people against offering any shelter to violent factions.

Mr McGuinness said the breakaway groups faced united opposition from political parties and he urged communities to “remain steady” against the threat.

The Stormont Deputy First Minister spoke out as detectives questioned three men over the murder of Catholic police officer Ronan Kerr, who was killed outside his home in Omagh.

A 33-year-old man was detained in the Co Tyrone town on Friday over the booby trap bomb attack that killed the 25-year-old last Saturday.

On Friday, police were also given five more days to question a 26-year-old man arrested in Scotland on Wednesday and re-arrested on Thursday, plus a 40-year-old man arrested near Omagh on Thursday.

Dissident republicans opposed to the peace process were blamed for the attack, and the same extremists are believed to be behind a 500lb van bomb police discovered near the border town of Newry on Thursday.

There are fears the abandoned device was intended for a town centre and could have caused loss of life on the scale of the 1998 Omagh massacre.

Mr McGuinness said of the groups: “Over the course of recent years it appears that they do have a limited capability, but you can’t rule out anything.

“I think the greatest danger from these groups is to the local community.

“If you look at the people that have been killed by these groups they are mostly from the nationalist/republican community.”

He told the BBC: “I think what we have to do is be very steady in our approach. Peter Robinson and I and other colleagues within the Executive are totally and absolutely united.”

In a direct appeal to the small support base for the dissidents, Mr Adams warned against sheltering what he described as anti-peace factions, and he argued that the political landscape had changed since the days of the Troubles.

“To those who might shelter or provide resources and facilities to the perpetrators of these actions you need to ask yourselves what purpose is being served?” he said.

“Don’t be fooled into thinking that you are helping the IRA. The war is over.”

He said the dissident groups were involved in violence and extortion for their own ends. And despite the factions having issued death threats against Sinn Féin leaders, he said he would meet with them to try to persuade them to end violence.

Politicians have noted, meanwhile, that dissidents continue to target police and to show a reckless disregard for the safety of the public.

The device that killed constable Kerr on April 2 detonated not long after a fun run had passed the scene.

Detectives yesterday said they believed the van bomb found at an underpass near the Irish border on the main Belfast to Dublin road, may have been destined for a town centre attack.

Politicians said it risked causing an Omagh-style atrocity. Twenty nine people were killed, including a woman pregnant with twins, in the Real IRA bomb attack in the centre of the Co Tyrone town in August 1998.

While it is believed the presence of a police checkpoint forced the latest bombers to abandon the vehicle, hundreds of motorists drove past the deadly device unaware of the danger after traffic cones and warning signs had been removed, and even driven over, by others on the road.

The blue Ford Transit van, stolen in Maynooth outside Dublin in January and carrying false Donegal registration plates, was found near Newry and contained a wheelie bin packed with 500lbs of homemade explosives.

Policing Board member Jonathan Bell said the bombers had planted “500lbs of hatred aimed at murder”.

“Had this device exploded the consequences are almost too horrible to contemplate,” he said.

The van was found on Thursday night and was made safe during a lengthy overnight security operation.

Chief Supt Alasdair Robinson, commander for the area where the attack was uncovered, said poor warnings from the gang responsible had meant police only located the device after the van was spotted by a member of the public.

He said the exact target was unclear, but added: “What we do know is that we had a police operation in place that evening, so it is our belief that the van was being moved to another location, but it was thwarted by the police operation at the time.”

He added that the bomb may have been destined for a landmark building or a town centre, and could have caused “huge devastation and loss of life”.

“The device itself was viable and it was a sophisticated device and it would have been devastating had it reached its destination,” he said.

Meanwhile, it has also emerged that dissident groups are continuing to target policemen in the wake of Pc Kerr’s murder.

Detectives have evidence that the dissidents have been actively targeting Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) personnel since the killing.

In a further development, it has emerged that just 24 hours before the fatal car bomb blast in Omagh, police had ordered a specialist team of detectives to begin sifting through evidence from historic dissident attacks in a bid to ramp-up pressure on the terrorists.

None of the renegade groups has yet claimed responsibility for the murder of Pc Kerr.

But officers have indicated that increasing links and co-operation between disparate organisations means a specific claim is not as relevant to their investigation as it might once have been.

They believe there are as many as 30 distinct groupings operating across the North, some claiming to be the Real IRA, some Continuity IRA, some from Oglaigh na hEireann, with other groups claiming no affiliation at all.

The fluid nature of the dissidents has seen a new grouping emerge in the Co Tyrone area in recent months.

The first two men arrested in connection with Pc Kerr’s murder are being questioned at Antrim police station.

The 40-year-old and 26-year-old are also being quizzed about a substantial arms and explosives cache uncovered by the murder investigation team near Coalisland, Co Tyrone, on Tuesday night.