Nature of attack on PSNI officer shows New IRA 'desperate' to be relevant

Dissident group's use of criminal gang sign of their weakness, according to security sources.

Forensic officers at the scene near the sports complex in the Killyclogher Road area of Omagh, Co Tyrone, where off-duty PSNI Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell was shot a number of times by masked men. Picture: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

The New IRA’s involvement of a criminal gang in the attempted murder of PSNI officer John Caldwell, and the way the gun attack was carried out, shows how “weak and desperate” the dissident group is, security sources have said.

Four suspected members of the gang arrested for the terror attack are from a Protestant background, including one with an historic conviction for a loyalist paramilitary attack on a Catholic.