POLICE AND security and intelligence agencies are assessing a claim by a dissident group that said it murdered PSNI constable Ronan Kerr (25) in an under-car bomb attack in Omagh three weeks ago.
The PSNI, meanwhile, said dissidents intended to kill more officers in the coming days and weeks.
The group, in telling the Belfast Telegraphit was responsible for killing the PSNI officer, also said it was comprised of former Provisional IRA members and that it was planning more bombings and killings.
The statement from the organisation coincided with a major and continuing police operation in south Armagh.
Police said they made three “significant” arrests during the operation targeting dissident republicans. They would make no further comment because it was an “ongoing operation”.
The PSNI yesterday also called for public vigilance over Easter, warning that dissidents were “intent on trying to murder officers in the coming days and weeks”.
“Dissident terrorist groups are continuing to identify officers and target them with the single objective of killing them and, in so doing, their reckless actions will also put the lives of our wider communities at risk,” a PSNI spokeswoman added.
The purported new dissident grouping said it would work with other dissident organisations but styled itself the dominant republican paramilitary group. “We are the IRA,” it said in its statement to the media.
The Belfast Telegraphreported that the organisation comprised former members of the Provisional IRA and that it was led from Belfast with support in places such as Lurgan, Tyrone and south Armagh.
“We are engaged in bringing our struggle to a successful conclusion through military operations such as the recent execution of the RUC [sic] member in Omagh,” it said in its statement.
The group also said it was involved in the 2009 murders of two British soldiers at the Massereene army base in Antrim, although this was claimed by the Real IRA. It also said it was involved in the under-car bombing that badly injured PSNI constable Peadar Heffron last year and the bombing of the policing board headquarters in Belfast 18 months ago.
These were claimed by Óglaigh na hÉireann.
The organisation said it planned more killings and bombings and “bringing our struggle to a successful conclusion through military operations”.
“We are committed to working with republicans who share the same analysis that Britain will not leave Ireland of its own volition,” its statement added.
The PSNI, Garda and British and Irish intelligence agencies are now assessing the statement and claims by the new group.
Security sources said those who killed British soldiers Patrick Azimkar and Mark Quinsey in Antrim were independent “non-affiliated” republicans who used the Real IRA name as a “flag of convenience” in claiming the killings.
They said this was the nature of dissident activity at the moment.
“The focus is on individuals; the republican organisations they claim to represent is becoming less important,” said a senior security source yesterday.
A new more cohesive grouping with the experience of former Provisional IRA members, if correct, would pose additional worries for British and Irish security services.
Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said the report of the new group appeared rather “bizarre” and neither he nor his Sinn Féin colleagues had any information about such an organisation composed of former Provisional IRA members.
“What we can say with certainty is that they are not the IRA; the IRA is history,” he said.
He said anyone with information about the group should bring it to the PSNI or Garda.
DUP First Minister Peter Robinson said “nothing could sum up the moral and political emptiness of the murderers of Ronan Kerr than their claim of responsibility”.
Calling them “murderous thugs”, he added: “Their adoption of military language to try to justify this act of cowardice is pitiful. Their mindless repetition of republican rhetoric shows they are dead from the neck up.”
