crime
Shooting at police officer in Northern Ireland: focus on New IRA
The police officer who was shot is said to be an officer who was investigating, among other things, in the paramilitary milieu (symbol image). photo
© Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP/dpa
On Wednesday evening in Omagh, Northern Ireland, a police officer was hit by several shots. The police are investigating at full speed and suspect militants behind the attack.
After an assassination attempt on a police officer in Northern Ireland, investigators assume perpetrators from the milieu of the republican-Catholic New IRA.
The police officer, who was off duty at the time, was shot multiple times while loading footballs into a car with his son after a practice session in the town of Omagh on Wednesday night. Police said he was in critical but stable condition at the hospital. It is said to be a senior officer who investigated paramilitary and drug-related crime.
“Investigations are at an early stage”
The New IRA is an amalgamation of several splinter groups of the paramilitary IRA (Irish Republican Army), which fought for a union of Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland in the decades-long civil war. At the end of the 1990s, the IRA laid down its arms and peace was concluded in the Good Friday Agreement. But some militants remained active, including on the side of Protestant supporters of the union with Britain. The splinter groups are closely linked to organized crime.
“The investigation is at an early stage,” Assistant Chief Constable Mark McEwan told BBC Radio Ulster on Thursday. All options are kept open, but the focus is on republican splinter groups and especially on the New IRA.
As the British news agency PA reported, there are suspicions that the perpetrators could have fled across the border to the Republic of Ireland. The investigators therefore worked closely with their colleagues in Ireland.