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The head of the Police Service of Northern Ireland said yesterday that it would be a "fair assessment" of the present security situation that the threat levels from the Real IRA and other groups are now at a critical level.

The Guardian has learned that one of the reasons why both the PSNI and MI5 have raised the threat level is due to the increased sophistication of the dissident republicans' bomb-making abilities.

Security sources in the Irish Republic told the Guardian this week that a recent car bomb left abandoned last month in Castlewellan, south Down contained a new type of anti-handling booby-trap device that almost killed a number of British Army bomb disposal officers.

The sources also revealed that a former Provisional IRA bomb maker from the south Down area who was responsible for a land mine attack that killed four locally-recruited British soldiers in a blast in the mid-1980s has joined the dissidents.

One security official said the device left in Castlewellan had "spooked" the British military and the wider security forces. He added that the short term strategy of groups like the Real and Continuity IRA is to target and kill Catholic members of the PSNI to deter others from joining the police service as well as to create maximum political embarrassment for Sinn Féin.

"What they dearly want is to see a scenario where a leading Sinn Féin figure is pictured or filmed walking behind the coffin of a dead Catholic PSNI officer. Then the dissidents can point and say that their former comrades have truly joined the establishment," the sources said.

Speaking in Belfast after he briefed Northern Ireland's Policing Board yesterday afternoon, Sir Hugh said: "We have said consistently that the threat has increased against police officers. We are very clear - they [the dissidents] are very determined to kill police officers going about their normal duties and keeping people safe."

The PSNI chief constable also rejected Sinn Féin accusations that he and the security services were exaggerating the present terrorist threat.

"I am not in the business of talking it up, I say it as I see it. Currently I think the threat is high, our officers are fully aware of that but you will not see a step change in policing because our policing style is commensurate to the threat as we perceive it."

Asked about the republican dissidents' bomb-making abilities, Sir Hugh said: "Fortunately no one has been killed by a dissident republican attack to date. But we do take them seriously as some officers have been injured, although we have been lucky to some extent.

"They [dissident republicans] continue to push it to the edge because they show a reckless disregard for anybody's life. You only have to look at Castlewellan, a large bomb abandoned near a school. They were more than happy to leave that device and run away regardless of who might have been killed as a consequence."

He refused to comment in detail when questioned if there was a secondary, booby-trap device on that bomb.

"That's an investigation that is still under way. What we are saying is that it was a viable device and it shows their determination to kill and maim whenever they have that opportunity," he said.

Sir Hugh also claimed that anti-terrorist operations conducted by the Garda Siochana (Irish Police) in the Republic had saved PSNI officers' lives north of the border.

Interesting indeed, I do believe that there will be a threat to everyone if this isn't taken care of

If the bombmaker who killed those squaddies was known why wasnt he taken out by the SAS in the 80s not left breathing to return ad construct even more dangerous devices

as an ex RIR man my self 93-98,the reason i can honestly say is because the SAS were told not to,,we would have wiped those verman of the streets if the policical will was there and more importantly if we werent going around with our hands tied behind our backs,,hell any time we would get some action,we would have to EXPLAIN why we did it,FFS we were fighting an f-ing war...against a cowardly marxist group of thugs..

It became a joke hence the reason i left

828

yes especially having to issue a warning 3 times if you did see them with rifles , hands tied up in yellow card (rules of engagement within the uk) mumbo jumbo,

Yes mate which gives the scum enough time to put a bullet in you.............



828

I saw these riots against the parades by the orangemen, all organized by IRA scum and the media try to make out it was the orangemen who started it by having a legal parade

all pro british stuff is being censored in ulster now but the fenians still have IRA murals all over heir areas

Loyalist parties are giving up now - what happened to the UDA

the media are scum, theyve always supported the IRA

Yes the media never show the Loyalists in a good light, bastards.

you go into a loyalist area the place is clean and respectable they have a sense of pride in their area you go into a republican area its a dump they and beleive it or not do have horses living on every plot of grass just like pikeys , around crumlin rd and oakman rd its a dump or it was the last time i was there and the divis flats are just a fuckin eye sore is the big tricolour still flying at the top of divis flats .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wa7rK1N ... re=related

loyalist hero