6 Arrested in N. Ireland after Real IRA Threatens to Kill Police, Soldiers


Monday, 09 Apr 2012,
(NewsCore) - ANTRIM, Northern Ireland -- Six men have been arrested after the Real IRA (Irish Republican Army) threatened to kill more policemen and soldiers.

They were detained Monday after a masked spokesman for the group made the threat at an Easter Rising commemoration in Derry, Northern Ireland.

Police are now questioning the men in Antrim.

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 political party Sinn Fein joined the peace process. McKevitt is serving a jail sentence for terrorist offenses 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, assault rifles, handguns, detonators and timing devices. In 1999, they supplemented their arsenal by importing military explosives and rocket launchers from Croatia.

The Real IRA comprises semi-autonomous cells, not unlike those operated by al Qaeda.

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 in 1998.
Source http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/dpps/news/6-arrested-in-n-ireland-after-real-ira-threatens-to-kill-police-soldiers-dpgonc-20120409-bb_19065851

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