SECURITY CHIEFS and political leaders have vowed that a thwarted dissident republican gun attack and an attempted bombing will not derail the political process.
PSNI officers and the Garda mounted a cross-Border investigation on Saturday night following a foiled dissident attack, possibly on a police officer, in the village of Garrison, Co Fermanagh, near the Border.
Three shots were fired in the incident, two by the PSNI. Investigators from the North’s police ombudsman’s office are investigating.
Three men were arrested by the PSNI and taken for questioning to the Antrim PSNI base. Gardaí arrested a fourth suspect a short distance across the Border in Dooard, Co Leitrim. He is being held under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.
The police operation came within hours of an attempted bombing of the headquarters of the Policing Board in Belfast. A car containing a 180kg (400lb) explosive device crashed through security barriers at Clarendon Dock and was left outside the offices of the board, which oversees the PSNI. Two men ran away as the bomb partly exploded.
A burned-out vehicle found later in nearby Hillman Street in the New Lodge area of north Belfast could be linked to the incident, police believe.
The two incidents, which police cannot confirm are connected, follow seven serious dissident republican attacks and attempted bombings so far this year, which have seen the deaths of two British soldiers and a PSNI officer.
Earlier this month the British and Irish governments’ ceasefire monitor, the Independent Monitoring Commission, warned that the dissident threat was at a six-year high.
Former PSNI chief constable Sir Hugh Orde said the dissidents were well infiltrated by state forces. His successor, Matt Baggott, and security minister Paul Goggins insisted yesterday the political process would not be blown off course.
Sinn Féin junior Minister Gerry Kelly said: “These actions are futile and have no place in advancing republican or democratic objectives. These activities need to end.”