The murder of a police officer in Northern Ireland once again proves that the threat
from dissident republican terrorism remains only too real. This latest attack comes against a background of various attempted bombings and hoax alerts that have disrupted life in the province. Back
in January, a sophisticated “double-tap” bomb attack on a police patrol in north Belfast was only narrowly averted. Since then a series of incidents have occurred in Derry, Belfast and
Fermanagh. Going back further, the last two years (since the triple murder of March 2009) have seen the bombing of banks, courthouses, police stations and even MI5’s regional headquarters in
Northern Ireland. Just over fourteen months ago, another young police constable in Co. Antrim, Peadar Heffron, lost a leg to a similar booby-trap device to the one that detonated today in Omagh.
The choice and location of this last attack says much about the growing confidence and outlook of the dissidents.
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