Real IRA Vows To Continue Its Deadly Attacks
By David Blevins, Ireland correspondent | Sky News – 1 hour 3 minutes ago
The Real IRA has vowed to continue its attacks on members of the British security forces.
A masked man issued the threat during an Easter Rising commemoration in Derry.
The Real IRA is a renegade faction which emerged following a split in the mainstream Provisional IRA (PIRA).
PIRA's alleged quartermaster general, Michael McKevitt, walked out when Sinn Fein joined the peace process.
McKevitt is serving a jail sentence for terrorist offences south of the Irish border.
He is the husband of Bernadette Sands McKevitt, sister of infamous hunger striker Bobby Sands.
Up to two dozen others defected with him, taking with them both weaponry and experience.
The newly formed Real IRA soon replaced the Continuity IRA as the home for dissidents.
Initially, they had access to small amounts of material that had previously been under their control: Semtex explosive, Uzi submachine guns, AK-47 assault rifles, handguns, detonators and timing devices.
In 1999, they supplemented their arsenal by importing military explosives and rocket launchers from Croatia.
Further attempts to purchase and smuggle weaponry in Eastern Europe were foiled by security agencies.
The Real IRA comprises semi-autonomous cells, not unlike those operated by al Qaeda.
It has neither the command structure nor the discipline of the Provision IRA, but should not be underestimated.
A year after it came into existence, it carried out Northern Ireland's worst terrorist atrocity when 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins, were killed in the Omagh bombing.
Three years ago, the group claimed the murders of two British soldiers in County Antrim .
Sappers Patrick Azimkar, 21, and Mark Quinsey, 23, were shot dead outside Massereene Army Barracks.
Constable Ronan Kerr , 25, a Catholic member of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, was their most recent victim.
Their booby trap bomb detonated when he opened his car door in Omagh.
Despite threats, the Real IRA failed to disrupt the Queen's historic visit to Ireland, but the terror group has no intention of abandoning violence and embracing peace any time soon.
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I said it in one of my earlier posts, The IRA are not freedom fighters they are filth, scum, nothing more than terrorists. They are just sick killers of innocents and cannot get the sickness out of their blood. If every soldier pulled out of the Province the IRA would still find an excuse to use their disgusting trade.
I wonder now if Martin Sheen is still proud of uncle's IRA past??? He must be as sick as they are.
Be well IAN 2411