A CALLER to a Belfast local radio station claimed last night that the IRA was responsible for a gun attack in which an RUC officer was shot and slightly injured as he guarded a senior Democratic Unionist Party politician.
The caller, using a recognised codeword, said that the IRA claimed responsiblity for the attack and that policemen rather than the politician were the targets.
The shooting caused an immediate escalation in tension in the city as the DUP initially interpreted the incident as an attempt to assassinate their party secretary, Cllr Nigel Dodds, as he visited his son in a hospital in West Belfast.
But, in advance of the claim of responsiblity, the RUC assistant chief constable, Mr Bill Stewart, said the attack appeared to have been directed at the two police officers guarding Mr Dodds.
An RUC spokesman said Mr Dodds was behind closed and locked doors in the intensive care unit when the shooting took place. "The attack was on the two police officers who were providing security outside," he added.
The shooting drew widespread political condemnation in Belfast and Dublin. The Northern Ireland Security Minister, Sir John Wheeler, appealed for no retaliation and pledged no effort would be spared in tracking down those responsible. A Government spokesman in Dublin strongly condemned the attack, as did the Fianna Fail leader, Mr Bertie Ahern.
A caller to Belfast's Downtown Radio, claiming to represent the IRA, said: "Belfast brigade IRA claim responsibility for the attack. Nigel Dodds was not the target [this phrase was repeated twice]. The target was armed plain clothes policemen." A journalist with the radio station said a recognised codeword was given by the caller.
The attack occurred at around 8.15 pm while Mr Dodds and his wife were visiting their critically ill seven-year-old son, Andrew, in an intensive care unit at the Royal Children's Hospital on the Falls Road. The RUC men were in a corridor outside.
The police spokesman said the officers noticed two men approaching who appeared to be wearing wigs. When they challenged them, one man produced a gun and fired four shots, hitting one officer in the foot. Another shot hit an empty incubator in the intensive care unit. The gunmen then escaped towards the Falls Road exit of the hospital. The RUC said no shots were returned. An Independent Unionist politician, Cllr Nelson McCausland, who was visiting a patient in a nearby ward, said he heard four shots being fired.
The attack will inevitably have serious implications, with further strain being placed on the loyalist ceasefire.
It has been widely known in political circles that Mr Dodds's son, who suffers from spina bifida and hydrocephalus, has been a patient in the hospital for the past six weeks. Police bodyguards have accompanied Mr Dodds and his wife on their regular visits.
Mr Dodds is a former Lord Mayor of Belfast and a senior aide to the DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley He does not normally have police bodyguards but had called to Grosvenor Road RUC station before going to west Belfast and officers had been assigned" to accompany him.
The gunmen who carried out the attack would have been well aware of Mr Dodds's movements in his visits to his son at the hospital, which had been reported in the local media.
Mr Ian Paisley junior, justice spokesman for the DUP, said he was in no doubt that the gunmen had planned to kill Mr Dodds and his RUC bodyguards. "Thank God no one was murdered," said Mr Paisley.
He said loyalist paramilitaries should not fall into the republican trap by similarly responding to last night's attack.
The DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, said it was hellish that people were "planning something like this practically on Christmas Eve.".
Dr Joe Hendron, SDLP MP for West Belfast, also condemned the attack.