The Continuity IRA last night admitted responsibility for a bomb attack on a police station in Castlewellan, Co Down, in which two RUC officers were injured last week.
The RUC had initially blamed republicans for the attack, but later said that the booby-trap device bore similarities to ones previously used by loyalists.
In a statement last night, accompanied by a recognised codeword, a male caller said:
"The Continuity IRA states that a number of their volunteers carried out an attack on the British occupation forces in Castlewellan on November 1st as a result of which two of them were badly injured."
The device exploded as two RUC officers were opening the gates of the police station. One officer was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast for emergency surgery. He lost a leg.
Two days after the explosion, RUC Supt Raymond McGreevy said preliminary forensic reports indicated that the device was "of a type previously attributable to loyalist paramilitaries".
An RUC spokesman last night said that the involvement of dissident republicans in the Castle wellan blast had "never been ruled out".
He added that the force would be examining the Continuity IRA's admission.
While in recent times the UDA has targeted individual RUC officers involved in the prosecution of its members, loyalists have not planted indiscriminate bombs aimed at the force.